The Reunited Souls
by Puppylove7
Summary: Two kids met when they were young, and instantly became friends. They later got separated, but several years later they meet again at Seigaku junior high, will they still remember each other after all of those years?
1. A New Friendship Begins

The Reunited Souls

Disclaimer: I don't own The Prince of Tennis, or any of its original characters. I only own my characters that I created.

Summary: Two friends got separated when they were young. After a new student transfers to Seigaku junior high, they end up meeting up again several years later. Will they still remember each other after so many years?

Regular text= spoken lines and narration.

/Thoughts of the characters/

_Italicized typing= memories of the characters._

Chapter 1:

A New Friendship Begins

It was a sunny Saturday morning, and all of the children were out playing with the exception of a small, very shy, strawberry blond girl, who sat in her room and watched the other kids have fun through her window. The young girl had no idea that she was being watched by a pair of concerned eyes.

"Ayame, honey, why don't you go outside and play with the other children?" asked the girl's mother in a concerned voice.

"I would, but the other children scare me, and I don't think the other kids will like me." the girl responded to her mother question.

"Well, you will never know until you try to play, so go outside and play with the other kids, okay?" her mother asked. The girl complied with her mother's request, and she went outside.

Ayame was outside, but still was not socializing with the other children around. She continued to watch the other kids play what seemed to kickball. That was until she heard a voice from right next to her to her left.

"Why are you just sitting here watching, when you could be out there playing with everyone else?" She looked to her left to find a young boy with brown hair and a smile on his face.

"I would but……" Ayame started to say, but stopped mid sentence.

He looked at her and asked "but what?"

"But, I'm afraid of the other kids……" Ayame replied.

/Oh, she must be the shy type. / The young boy thought to himself. The then said to Ayame, "Hey, why don't you come and play with me? Or if you prefer we can just sit here and talk."

Ayame looked up at him and smiled, and thought to herself /he doesn't seem like a bad person, maybe I should give him a chance. /, and said to the young boy "sure, I'll play with you." With that they both got up, and walked to a near by park, so that they could play together.

When they arrived at the park, Ayame had asked the young boy "What do you want to play?"

"I don't really know what would you like to play?" replied the young boy. After a few minutes of thinking they both agreed to play a game of follow the leader. The two kids decided that the young boy would be the leader first, and then began to play. After a few hours of playing, they decided to sit down under a tree and take a break. While they were resting, the two heard a noise coming from a little further into the park. So the two decided to go and see what the noise was, and what the saw when found where the sound had come from they saw a couple of older kids playing tennis. The two kids found it somewhat amusing to watch, so they decided to sit on the bleachers that were near the tennis courts. When they were watching the older kids play, one of the players caught Ayame's eye. After she realized who the person was, she began to get anxious, and she fidgeted around while she watched.

Her companion noticed that she began to fidget around in her seat, and asked her "What's the matter?"

Ayame spoke is a nervous tone and said "one of those older kids is my older brother, and if I get spotted here, I'll probably be in trouble." And with that she got up to run before she could be seen. But as she got up to run, she tripped and fell backwards into the bleachers. It all happened so fast that the young boy had no time to respond to the situation, and before he could do anything, it was too late, Ayame's head went smashing into the corner of the bleachers. After that, all of the older kids stopped playing their matches due to all of the commotion at the bleachers to see what had happened, and when they saw two young children sitting there by themselves, and that one was laying there with a major head wound, they ran over to see what exactly had happened.

But when a certain boy had seen who it was that was lying there, he yelled the young girl's name "AYAME!", and ran as fast as his legs would let him move to get to his younger sister. When he got to her, he knelt down beside her, spoke her name so softly that she could barely hear him.

"Shinji, I'm sorry." and after that she blacked out.

With that Shinji began to cry hysterically, while he was crying, one of the other older kids went over to the remaining younger child, and asked him what had happened. When asked, the young boy explained everything. While the other two were preoccupied with other things, the remaining older kid pulled out his cell phone and called 911 immediately. While waiting for the ambulance to get there, the two older children tried to comfort the completely mortified boy, but they did not prevail in doing so. When the ambulance finally arrived, they put the young girl on the gurney, and put her in the back of the ambulance, when they were about to shut the doors, all of the children asked if they could come too. The medical personnel decided that they children could ride with them to the hospital.

When they arrived at the hospital, Shinji immediately called his mother, and told her the bad news. After hearing everything, she too went into hysterics, and rushed to get there to her children. Upon arriving at the hospital, she automatically found her son to get more information on how things were going.

"Not so well, I haven't heard anything new about her condition just yet." "So I'm assuming that nothing new has come up." was all he had to say at the moment. After he mentioned that to his mother the door to the operating room opened, and out came a guy that looked to be in his mid fifties.

He went up to her and said "Mrs. Hamasaki, could I speak to you please?" "It pertains to your daughter." And with that said, they when to a corner in the room to talk in privacy about the situation.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Authors note: Sorry about the short chapter, but I hope to make the others longer, I will try to make the others a bit longer, that is unless this is long enough. It might be awhile till I can update, so please bare with me. Please leave a review if you have the time. Thanks.


	2. The Crucial Moment

**Authors Note**: Sorry it took me awhile to update, I had exams to deal with, and a couple of essays and other assignments to finish up, and also I just needed a bit of time to organize my thoughts. I'm sorry for the wait. But anyway please enjoy chapter 2.

Chapter 2:

The Crucial Moment

"Mrs. Hamasaki, could I speak to you please?" "It pertains to your daughter." And with that said, they when to a corner in the room to talk in privacy about the situation.

"Your daughter is in critical condition, and we don't know if she will make it." "The next several hours will be crucial."

"Oh, but, can my son and I see her?" Ayame's mother asked, with an expression of grief on her face.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Hamasaki, but I cannot allow you two to go see your daughter, at least not in her condition." "I think that it will be more suitable to go and see her when she is in a more stable condition."

"Ok, I understand." said Ayame's mother, who was now sobbing.

"I'll keep you updated on her condition, but until she is in a more stable condition, nobody can visit her." "I'm very sorry." With that, the doctor turned and went back behind the double doors, and then disappeared. After seeing him go back, Mrs. Hamasaki went back to the rest of the group and took her seat.

"Hey, what did the doctor have to say?" Shinji asked as he walked toward his mother.

She answered him while peering up at her son's concerned face. "He said that is not in very good condition, and that she might not make it. Also that she can't have visitors until she is more stable."

"I see I just hope that things get better soon."

"Me too honey, me too."

Several hours had passed, and it was now night time. The lobby in which they waited was mainly deserted. There were only a few other people there in the desolate area other than the two that waited with patience for some good news to come about. Waiting in the room with them was the young boy who was with Ayame earlier with his family, a lady who looked to be in her late thirties or early forties, and a small group of people who were on the complete other side of the large waiting space, but other than that the area seemed dead, bare of other living objects.

Around five thirty in the morning the two were woken by voice that was calling their names. The two open their eyes to see the face of the doctor that Ayame's mother had talked to earlier. With hopeful looks on their faces, both Shinj and his mother asked in unison "Is Ayame doing okay?"

"Ayame is doing well, but there is something that I should warn you about."

"What's wrong with her, didn't you just say she was okay?" the two asked with slightly confused looks on their faces.

"Yes, I did say that, but there is another thing that needs to be said." "There is a possibility that Ayame has temporary amnesia, but other than that that she is just fine."

"Oh dear, my poor baby." Ayame's mother said with a bit of despair on her face.

"Can we go see her anyway?" "I want to see her anyway." Shinji said in a tone that began to brighten up a bit, but with a face that varied in emotions.

"I don't see why you can't see her that is if you don't mind the possibility of not being remembered."

"We don't care, as long as we can see her." they both said together. With that the doctor was about to lead them to the room where Ayame awaited them, but there was a voice that called to them, that stopped them in their tracks. And turn around to see who it was.

When they turned around to find the young boy standing there. The young boy asked in a kind manner "Can I come with to see her?"

Shinji looked at the young boy and recognized him right away, and Shinji said "Hey this is the boy who was with Ayame when she got hurt."

The young boy just nodded and said "Yes, I am the boy who was with Ayame earlier, and I would be happy if you would be kind enough to let me go with you to see Ayame."

"Well I would be happy to, but I can't take you without permission from your parents first." "By the way, where are your parents?"

"My family is right over there, and I would be happy if you would be kind enough to let me go with you to see Ayame."

"Alright, you can come with us, but first you must ask your parents to come along with us. Okay?"

"Okay, I will go and ask my parents first." And with that the young boy ran to get his parents' permission go along as see Ayame. But while he was away, there was a bit of a conversation going on amongst Shinji and his mother.

"Hey mom, are you sure it is okay to let him come along?" "I mean we don't even know who he is, and we have no idea how he will respond in specific situations. "

"Oh honey, I think it will be fine, and besides he seems like he really wants to see her, and who know maybe he can handle things better than you think he can."

"I just don't know if it will be a very good idea."

"Well, I think it will be fine, you just have to deal with what I decide to do."

"Okay, but I just hope that you know what you are doing." Right after Shinji had said that the young boy had returned, but this time he had his mother with him. Shinji had heard them coming and turned around to face the young boy and his mother with a face the show his uncertainty with the situation. After seeing that her son had turned around Mrs. Hamasaki had turned around to see what it was that he was looking at, and when she turned around she saw that the young boy had brought his mother along this time.

The young boy's mother was the first to speak when she had approached the two. "I hear that you are going to go see you daughter, and that my son here would like to go with you." "I give my permission for him to go, but that is if I come along too."

"I'm fine with that." said Mrs. Hamasaki.

After waiting on everybody the doctor asked "Is everybody ready to go yet?"

"Everybody looked at him and said together "Yes, we are now ready to go." And with that they went to go and see Ayame. When they went through the doors they took a left down another hallway, then they went to the very end of that hallway and they entered the last door on the right.

When they entered the group was relieved to see that Ayame was awake, and was watching the television that was set up in her room. Mrs. Hamasaki was the first to speak when they entered. "Ayame, do you remember who I am?' Ayame had never noticed that they had entered, so when she heard her speak she jumped and averted her attention from the television and looked at them, but did not say a word.

Authors Notes: Well there is chapter 2. I hope you guys liked it. I'm very sorry for the long wait, but I was just so busy with stuff, and I didn't know exactly how I wanted to go about things in the story. I will seriously try to speed up my updates with the upcoming chapters. Again I'm very sorry for the wait. If you guys have any questions, comments, suggestions, or just spot some errors that I might have missed please feel free to leave me a review. Oh and before I end this I would like to thank the following people for reviewing on my last chapter: invisible-gurl, Different Child, mhwang, and the two people without accounts (=____= and blah). I hope to see more reviews from you guys next chapter, and possibly other too, but anyway, bye for now.


	3. A Moment of Sheer Relief

**Authors Note:** Now that it is summer I should have more time to work on this story now, but anyway here is Chapter 3.

Chapter 3:

A Moment of Sheer Relief

Mrs. Hamasaki was the first to speak when they entered. "Ayame, do you remember who I am?' Ayame had never noticed that they had entered, so when she heard her speak she jumped and averted her attention from the television and looked at them, but did not say a word. The silence began to make her nervous, but that nervousness was short lived because a moment after that Ayame began to speak.

"Yes, I do remember who you are. You are my mom." "Why did you ask me that?" Mrs. Hamasaki was about to answer, but before she could get a single word out, Shinji had answered Ayame's question for her.

"She asked because when you were at the park right next to our house yesterday, you had a very severe accident on the bleachers. You fell and had a massive head injury because of the fall, don't you remember any of that?"

"I don't remember that, but I do remember playing with a boy, and then we decided to take a break, and we were on the bleachers, which is when we saw you and your friends playing tennis on the courts not too far ahead of us. Then I remember trying to get out of there because I forgot to tell mom that I was leaving the yard. I didn't want to get in trouble."

After Ayame had said that her mother decided to say a few words while they were on the subject. "Ayame, why would you think that you would get in trouble for going to the park to play instead of playing in the yard? You did exactly what I said to do and went to go play with other children. There were not any other kids in the yard. So, I would not have mad that you went to the park to play, to tell you the truth I'm kind of happy that you went to the park, I mean you seemed to have made a new friend."

"Speaking of friends, what happened to him after all of that happened?"

Hearing the concern in her daughter's voice Mrs. Hamasaki answered her daughter's question. "Oh, he came with you to the hospital. He is right over there with his mother." After saying that she moved to the side to reveal the young boy that Ayame had played with the other day before the whole traumatic incidence, and sure enough, he was sitting with a woman who was just said to be his mother. After seeing that nothing happened to the boy, Ayame began to relax.

When the young boy actually noticed that Ayame was looking at him he smiled and finally got enough courage to actually speak to her for the first time since the incidence in the park. "Hey, I'm glad to see that you are awake and doing ok."

"Thanks, I really appreciate your concern, and I don't only mean him. I mean all of you. I really mean it. I'm very grateful for everything." Before Ayame could continue with her continuous babbling, she was distracted by the sound of somebody knocking on the door of her hospital room. She automatically stopped her babbling and turned her attention to the door along with everybody else in the room. When they turned to the door it had been opened by one of the nurses that had come to check up on her. When the nurse entered, she had been pushing in a cart of food. When she actually got in the room she realized that there were visitors in the room she greeted them, and gave them a warm smile.

"Well good morning everybody, I'm sorry to interrupt your visitation with Ayame here, but it is time for her to eat her breakfast." Just the word breakfast made everybody in the room realize that none of them have eaten anything that morning, and that they were hungry.

After hearing the word breakfast Shinji decided to speak his thoughts and asked his question "speaking of breakfast, what time is it anyway?"

The nurse just smiled at him and she said "it is now 8:30, and time for Ayame to have her breakfast. You guys are free to stay here and continue talking with her, or you guys can go and get yourselves some breakfast, the choice is yours. I will now leave you guys to make your decision. I will also be back in to check on her later." With that said and done the nurse left the room and shut the door behind her.

Shinji looked around the room to see if the others were going to respond and give their decisions, but when he did so he noticed that nobody looked like they were going to say anything, so he decided to break the silence and speak his opinion "I don't know about the rest of you but I'm kind of hungry, I think that I will go and get something to eat. Is anybody else coming with me?" He then looked around at the group of people that were in the room with him and saw everybody else looking at one another trying to come up with a decision, when they all decided to go and get something to eat for breakfast they all gave him a nod and started for the door. But before she left the room, Mrs. Hamasaki stopped to tell Ayame something.

"Honey, we are going to go get some breakfast for ourselves. We will be back later, and when we are gone, I suggest that you try to get some rest, you look like you could really use it. Ok?"

"Ok mom, I'll try to get some rest while you and the others are out. I'll see you when you get back." With that said Mrs. Hamasaki left Ayame to eat her breakfast and joined up with her son and the others.

As Ayame was eating her breakfast, she began to think about some things.

/Man this food is not so bad, I don't understand why everybody hates it, I actually kind of like. /

While eating her breakfast Ayame was trying to find something to watch on the television, but could not find anything that was relevantly interesting to her. While she was flipping through the channels she thought /man, over 5oo channels and nothing to watch, this really sucks./ Then she decided to just turn off the television and lay down to try and get some rest. Within minutes of laying down she fell asleep.

While Ayame was sleeping soundly in her bed at the hospital the rest of group was out trying to find a good restaurant to eat at. But they were not having any success in finding anything that they all agreed on. When all of a sudden they spotted a restaurant that they all thought looked good, so they decided to go there instead of looking for another place to eat at. When they entered the restaurant they could not believe their eyes. They restaurant was very elegant and extravagant looking, but from the outside it did not look so extravagant. But that did not stop them from eating there, it had been about two hours since they left the hospital and they were all pretty hungry, so they decided to stay there and have their breakfast. They also noticed that it was a bit crowded too, but they decided to wait for a waiter or waitress to get them a table. After about ten minutes of waiting a waitress was finally able to get them seated. When she got over to them she responded with "a table for four?" Mrs. Hamasaki responded with a swift yes. Then the waitress led the group of four to a table in the middle of the crowded restaurant. After everybody was seated the waitress had introduced herself.

"Hello, my name is April, and I will be your waitress for today, When you guys are ready to order just let me know, ok?" and with that she went off to take care of other customers.

When she left everybody picked up a menu and started to look at what was on the breakfast menu. After about ten to fifteen minutes of searching for what they wanted to eat the group of four closed the menus and put them back on the table. While they were waiting on their waitress to return, they decided to carry on a conversation to get to know one another.

The one who decided to start the conversation was the young boy's mother. "Isn't this a nice restaurant to eat at?"

"Yes, I'd have to agree with you, it is quite pleasant. But I must say, it is also teeming with people too." Was the response that the young boy's mother got from Mrs. Hamasaki.

"Oh, where are my manners, I have yet to properly introduce myself. My name is Shiori Hamasaki, and that is my son Shinji."

"It's nice to meet you Shiori. My name is Keiko Fuji, and he is my son Syuusuke."

"Oh, he is a cute boy, is he your only child?"

"Oh, no. He is my second born of three. I have daughter and another son."

"I would have never guessed that you had three kids, I mean you look so young."

"Well you look you too for having two children yourself."

While those two were chit chatting about those things the two boys were having a conversation of their own.

"Hey Shinji, has your sister always been so shy like she was earlier today and the other day?"

"No, not always. She used to be a very social young girl, but ever since that one particular incidence three years ago she has not been the same."

"A particular incidence? What incidence would that be?"

"I'm not sure I should tell you about it. It was not a good thing, to make things worse it was a bad thing for me too. I feel miserable just thinking about it."

"I see….. I would like to hear about it, but if you don't want to that is fine too."

"No, I'll tell you about it since you asked me about it."

_Flashback_

_Ayame was enjoying her time at the park that was right next to her house. She was playing hide and seek with a couple of her friends from school and a few random kids who she met at the park. It was her turn to be it. As she was counting to forty and the rest of the kids started to hide. At that moment I was at the tennis court playing at match, but while I was playing, I was also keeping an eye on her like my mother had asked me to do. I had took my eyes off of her long enough to play a bit of the match, and when I was about to serve the ball I heard a scream come from the direction that she and the rest of the rest of the kids were playing. At first I thought it was just screaming because they were found and were being chased, so I ignored it and continued with my match. After I finished the match I went to go get Ayame, but could not find her anywhere in the park, so I went home to see if she had left and gone home, but she was not there. So I ran out of the house and searched for her through the entire city. I had been searching for her till it started to get dark, and I was about to give up and go home and explain the whole thing to my mother when I finally found her sitting on the curb, and she looked like she had been beaten up a little. I went to her sat down beside her and confronted her with the issue._

"_Hey, Ayame what happened to you, and why did you leave the park without me?"_

_When Ayame looked up and saw me sitting there she started to cry and said "Oh Shinji, I'm so happy to see you."_

_When I saw she was crying I picked her up and sat her in my lap and I attempted my question again "What happened to you, and why did you leave the park without?"_

"_When I was playing with the other kids a group of older kids came and started picking on us. I decided to stand my ground and try to tell them to leave us alone and to go away, but they did not listen to me and they beat me up. So I decided to run away from them, and I ended up here."_

"_I wish you would not have done that. Do you know who worried I was about you. I thought that you were kidnapped or something like that. Please don't do it again. Ok?"_

"_I'm sorry Shinji, I didn't mean to worry you. I won't do it again. I promise."_

_I was about to say something else when my cell phone started to ring. I pulled it out of my pocket to check the caller ID and saw that it was my mother. I thought to myself /it must be important because she never calls unless it is important/._

_I flipped open my phone and answered it. "Hello?"_

_On the other line my mother sounded frantic as she said "Shinji, you need to get your sister and get home immediately. It is urgent."_

"_Ok mom we will be there as soon as we can get there."_

"_Ok please hurry." With that I closed my phone and put it back in my pocket. While I did that Ayame looked at am with questionable eyes._

"_Who was that, and what is going on?"_

"_I don't have time to explain things at the moment. We need to get home and quickly. With that she got off my lap and we started to run our way home._

_When we got home there was an ambulance in front of our house. We ran straight into the house and found our mother crying hysterically. When we saw that we ran up to her as fast as we could._

"_Mom what happened here? Why is the ambulance here?"_

"_Ayame, Shinji thank goodness you are here."_

"_Mom what happened?_

"_It's your father."_

_Both Ayame and I looked at her with very confused faces and asked together "what happened to our dad?"_

"_Well, you know that he has had a consistent cough for the past week right? "_

"_Yeah, we know about the cough. What about it?"_

"_Well he was coughing like he always does, but all of a sudden he started to cough up blood and then he collapsed."_

"_Oh no. Is daddy dying?" Ayame asked starting ball like our mother had been doing the entire time she was explaining the situation to us._

"_I'm not sure honey, but the ambulance is taking him to hospital so the doctors can take care of him. After hearing that Ayame started to cry even more._

"_I want my daddy." Ayame cried._

_For the first time since I had heard what had happened I spoke "I want dad too. Let's go to the hospital and see what is going on. I really hope that everything is ok."_

_My mom just nodded her head and said "Ok, come on kids let's get in the car and head to the hospital and check up on things." With that we loaded up into the car and drove the thirty minutes it took to get to the hospital. _

_When we arrived at the hospital we ran directly inside and went directly to the service counter. The lady at the counter looked up from what she was doing to see who was there._

"_How may I help you people today?"_

"_Can I get any information on a patient that arrived here about thirty minutes to an hour ago?"_

"_Sure, what is the name of the patient?"_

"_His name is __Kentarou Hamasaki. Do you know anything about what is going on with him yet?"_

"_Kentarou Hamasaki, hold on a minute. Oh here is him name."_

_Getting impatient my mom asked "Well what do you have that you can tell me?"_

"_I'm sorry to tell you this, but things are not looking too good for at the moment. The doctors are trying to figure out what is causing the problems, but they are not having much success with that."_

"_Oh, I see." was all my mother managed to say after hearing that._

"_I will inform the doctors that you have arrived and have them keep you posted on the situation. Now I will ask you to go have a seat in the waiting room."_

_My mother just nodded and led us over to the waiting room where we waited for a response from the doctor. About two hours later a doctor came out looking like he was looking for somebody._

_My mother noticed that and asked him "Is there somebody that you are looking for?"_

"_Yes there is somebody that I'm looking for. I'm looking for the Hamasaki family. Do you happen to know where they are?"_

"_We are the Hamasaki family. What can you tell me about my husband?"_

_The doctor had a face that showed sorrow. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but your husband did not survive. We could not figure out what had caused him to die. You have my sincere apologies." After saying that he turned around and walked back through the doors he came from._

_After hearing that my mother started to cry worse than she did before. Ayame also responded very badly to the bad news by crying just as bad as our mother had, and for the first time since I was a young child I found myself crying._

_End of flashback_

"Now you know the story, and ever since that day our lives were never the same."

"I'm very sorry that that had happened to you and the rest of your family."

After about five minutes the waitress came back and drew everybody's attention to her. "Are you all ready to order yet?"

"Yes we are ready to order, I would like your biscuits in gravy with bacon and eggs. And for drink I would like a coffee." Mrs. Hamasaki had answered.

"I would also like your biscuits in gravy, but instead of the bacon I would like sausage. And for drink I would just like a glass of water." Ms. Fuji relied.

"I would like I double stack of pancakes with eggs, and sausage. For drink I would like orange juice." Shinji responded.

"I would like a single stack of pancakes with eggs and hash browns. For drink I would like a glass of milk. "Syuusuke answered.

After getting everybody's orders the waitress said "your orders will be here momentarily." And with that she left them to their conversations again.

About fifteen to twenty minutes later their food arrived, they ate their breakfast while having a conversation between them. About an hour later they were done with breakfast and paid for it, and then they headed back to the hospital to see Ayame again.

When they arrived back at the hospital they went directly to Ayame's room. When they entered the room they saw that Ayame was asleep. They did not want to disturb her so they decided to stay quiet. While they were sitting there they all started to realize just how tired they were and decided to take a nap themselves. Several hours had passed since they fell asleep, and a knock on the door had startled everybody in the room from the slumbers. Everybody looked at the door to see the nurse from before stand there.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake everybody up. I just came to see how Ayame was doing, and to see if you guys needed anything."

Ayame took this moment to ask a certain question "how long do I have to stay here, and when can I go home because I really want to go home."

"Well, if things go as they are going now, I would think that you can go home tomorrow afternoon. How does that sound?"

"That sounds great! I can't wait till I get to go home."

"Well then do as we say and you will be able to leave here tomorrow."

It was now late at night, and visitation hours were done. The nurse came into the room and noticed that everybody was still there.

"I'm sorry everybody, but visitation time is now over, and it is time for everybody to leave."

"Ok, we will see you tomorrow honey." said Mrs. Hamasaki.

Everybody else responded with a goodbye and started to leave. But they were stopped when Ayame said "Hey wait, don't leave yet, you never told me your name."

The boy stopped and said "My name is Syuusuke Fuji." And with that he joined the rest of the group and walked out the door.

When everybody left the room and Ayame was by herself she thought to herself /Syuusuke huh? I'll remember that when I see him again./ With that Ayame laid down and went to sleep thinking about her new friend.

**Authors Note**: Well, there is chapter 3. I hope you guys liked it because I think this is the best chapter I have done so far. I didn't actually know the name of Fuji's mother so I just came up with one on my own, but if any of you actually know her name could you be kind enough to tell me so that I can fix that. Oh and sorry if there are any errors throughout this chapter because I typed it at five in the morning. But anyway feel free to leave a review to tell me what you think, if you have any questions, or notice anything that needs to be fixed. Well that's it for now. Until next. Bye.


	4. A Very Lonely Moment

**Authors Note: **Hey guys I'm back again with the new update for this story. Here is chapter 4. Enjoy.

Chapter 4:

A Very Lonely Moment

Ayame was asleep dreaming a very pleasant dream when all of a sudden the entire dream got disturbed by the sound of a voice that said "Ayame you need to wake up now".

As Ayame began to stir from her sleep she mumbled "not yet, just a little longer."

"I'm sorry, but you need to get up now."

"Mmm…… Ok." Ayame then opened her eyes and sat up in her bed and looked around the room to get a view of her surroundings.

"What time is it?"

"It is 9:00 in the morning. If you wake up and eat your breakfast and we make sure everything is good enough for you to return home you will be able to return home in a couple hours, or when your family gets here, it all depends."

"Ok, so where is my breakfast?" Ayame asked in a really bored, irritated tone of voice.

"Your breakfast is right here, my dear." The nurse then moved, and while doing so she pulled a cart of food over to Ayame. "Say Ayame, do you want to stay so you have somebody to talk to, I would think that you would be a bit lonely in here by yourself."

"Ok, thanks, but no thanks. I don't want you to stay, and I don't really want to talk to you. Can you please leave me alone so that I may eat in peace please?"

"Ok, just call if you need anything ok." With that said and done the nurse left the room and shut the door behind her.

/Finally, she leaves. I was beginning to get annoyed with her. What happened to the nurse from before that did not linger so much, and was not so annoying?/

As Ayame was eating her breakfast she was in high hopes of finally returning home after being in the hospital for as long as she has been there. She was seriously hoping that the doctors would say she could go home because she was really beginning to miss her home. She especially missed her cat who was a calico named Kalli, and her dog who was a Siberian husky whose name was Kiki. She was also thinking that she actually was lonely, but there was no way that she was going to spent all day talking to a nurse that she barely knows and who get on her nerves just by talking to her. While she was lost in her thoughts she never even noticed that there was somebody else in her room with her. She only noticed when the person had relieved her of her empty plate that she was still holding. When the nurse had been retrieving the plate the nurse noticed the sadness in Ayame's eyes, and she decided to see what exactly was bothering her.

"Ayame what's the matter?" After she asked the question all she got was silence that is when she finally decided to tap Ayame on the shoulder to get Ayame's attention.

"Huh?" was the only response that the nurse got when she tapped Ayame on the shoulder, which indicated that she had finally gotten the young girls attention.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing is wrong with me. I was just thinking about some things."

"Now, you know that is not good to lie Ayame. I can tell from the look in your eyes that something is bothering you. Why don't you tell me what's bothering you. You can trust me."

/Well, at least she isn't the nurse from earlier. She doesn't nag about everything, and she really seems like she cares. I guess I can tell her./

After hearing the silence the nurse decided that maybe she was not going to tell her what is wrong, and that maybe she would come around later. So she started to get up and walk out of the room taking the cart with her when all of a sudden she felt a hand grab her wrist and hold her back. She looked back to see that Ayame had grabbed her wrist preventing her from leaving the room.

"No, please don't leave." Ayame said in a tone that displayed a lot of sadness.

The nurse then sat back down on Ayame's bed and asked "Are ready to talk to me now?"

Ayame then nodded and began to tell the nurse what was bothering her. "Well, you see what is bothering is how I just realized how much I actually miss home and my life out of the hospital. I really miss my friends from school, as well as my dog and cat at home, who of which are probably waiting for me to come home and greet them again, and most of all I miss my mommy. Without all of them I feel oh so lonely." After she had told the nurse what had been bothering her she began to cry. After seeing that the young girl in front of her had began to cry the nurse held the girl in an embrace and was trying to make the distressed girl feel better. After about thirty minutes of consistent crying Ayame finally cried herself to sleep. The nurse then put Ayame back into the bed. Then she quietly recovered the food cart and took it out of the room and softly closed the door behind her.

Several hours later when Ayame woke up and noticed some was different from earlier that morning. When she looked around the room she realized that there were more people in the room. She then took a closer look and noticed that it was her mother and brother. She was so happy to see them again, even though it had only been a night since she had seen them last. What Ayame did next surprised everyone.

"Mommy I missed you so much!" Ayame had basically yelled that when she basically jumped out of her hospital bed and hugged her mother so hard that it made it hard for her to breath.

"Oh Ayame I'm glad to hear you say that, but you saw me last night."

"I know mommy. But I was so lonely last night, it made me sad."

"Why are you here anyway? Shouldn't you be at work now?"

"Yes, but I got a call from the hospital saying that I should come here, and that you were having a couple issues, so here I am."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause so much trouble, but I just wanted to see my mommy again, oh and mommy?"

"Yes Ayame?"

"Is there any way that you can get the doctors to let me go home yet?"

"I already talked to them about that. They told me that it would be fine for you to go home today. All I have to do is sign a few papers and we should be ok to leave."

"Yay, I finally get to go home again, and I'll be able to go back to school and see me friends again too. You have no idea how happy this makes me."

"Wait Ayame, there is more to it though."

"Like what mommy?"

"Well, you see, the doctors told me that you could go home, but they also said that you should be kept home from school for a couple more days. Just until we know for sure that everything is ok with you."

"Oh man, just when I thought I was going to be able to see my friends again. Oh well, it's only a couple more days without them, at least I get to go home."

"Yes, that is true. Now I'm going to go take care of the paperwork that needs to be done before they release you. I'll be back in a few minutes."

While her mother was out of the room Ayame turned to her brother and asked "Hey, shouldn't you be at tennis practice?"

Shinji had smiled at her and replied to her question "Yeah I should be at tennis practice, but mom told me what had happened, and I found my captain after class and told him that I would not be able to make to practice today, and that I had something very important that I had to do, so he let me go for today."

"Cool that means that I have the rest of the day with my big brother and mommy."

"Yes, that is true." Shinji began to laugh at that statement. Ayame watched her brother laugh, and then began to laugh along with him.

Just moments later their mother had returned to the room and found her two children laughing, and then she cleared her throat and said "Sorry to interrupt your good time, but we are free to leave now. After hearing that Ayame wasted no time getting her shoes on and running out of the room faster than anyone in the room could say anything else.

Mrs. Hamasaki looked at her son and said "I guess she really could not wait to get out of here."

"Yeah I guess not, but shouldn't we go after my sister that took off like a speeding rocket out the door just a moment ago?"

"Yes that we should." With that said, they grabbed what little bit of stuff that belonged to the very overjoyed young girl and followed in pursuit after her."

After Ayame had exited the hospital, she finally noticed that her mother and brother had not come out with her, so she stood there and waited as patiently as she could for them to come out of the hospital. But the longer she waited, the more impatient she got. So when she finally saw her family approach the doors, and walk out of them she spoke in a very annoyed tone "What took you guys so long, you are so slow."

"Well, if you want the truth Ayame, we were not moving slow, you were moving extremely fast." Her mother told her in a matter of fact tone.

"Well, you would not have had to wait if you had not gone speeding out of the hospital like a speeding rocket. So literally you brought it on yourself."

"Ok, ok, you two are right I brought it on myself. But I wouldn't have sped out of there if I weren't so excited about finally getting out of there."

"Ok, now that that is settled, let's get your stuff loaded into the trunk of the car, and then get in ourselves. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can go home. I'm sure that is what you want, now isn't it Ayame?"

"Oh, yes, very much so." Ayame then grabbed her stuff and threw it in the trunk of the car, closed the trunk, and then literally jumped into the back seat of the car.

While they were driving home Ayame got bored, so she decided to look out of the window to watch the scenery go by. That amused her for awhile, but she then got bored with that too. So she asked the question that all young children are famous for asking "how much longer until we get home? I'm getting really bored."

"We should be home really soon, you will have to deal with your boredom a little longer."

"Ok…" Ayame said while pouting.

After five minutes more minutes had passes traffic had started to pick up. The road was extremely backed up.

"I wonder what is with the traffic all of a sudden."

"I know what you mean mom, it's like all of theses cars came out of nowhere." Shinji had commented to his mother's sudden response.

The extra waiting had irritated Ayame even more than she already was. "Hey mom, I thought you said that we would be home soon."

"I know I said that, but I wasn't expecting all of this traffic. Sorry, but we might be stuck here for awhile."

"After about ten minutes of moving very slowly, if even moving at all, Ayame decided to pull out a book and read to pass the time. She happened to be reading her favorite books, The Tales of the Fourth Grade nothing by Judy Blume. She got so into the book that she totally forgot that they were still stuck in traffic.

"Wow, she got awfully quiet back there, didn't she?" her mother had said to Shinji.

"Yeah, she did. I wonder what she is doing to keep quiet." After Shinji had asked that he turned around to see that Ayame was so engrossed in her book to complain about being bored.

"Well, now I know what is keeping her so quiet. She is so into that book that she is reading that she is not so bored anymore." Shinji had said to his mother.

After about three hours of being stuck in traffic they finally managed to get back home. But since it was so late when they got home, Ayame was already asleep in the backseat. So when Shinji had seen that, He lifted her up and carried her into the house and up to her room. He then put her into her bed, put her blanket over her, and then left the room, shutting the door behind him.

The next morning Ayame had woken up and rolled over to check the time, and she saw that it was only 8:30 in the morning, which was earlier that she had planned on getting up, so she rolled back over and tried to go back to sleep. After laying there for awhile, Ayame was not able to get back to sleep, so she decided to get out of bed and go downstairs to get something to eat. When she made it down stairs and into the kitchen, the first thing she did was head over to the cupboard that had the bowls in it, and took out a bowl, then she headed to where they kept the cereal, and pulled out the Coca Puffs, and then went to the table and poured the cereal into the bowl, but then she realized that she had forgotten her spoon and the milk, so she got back up and grabbed a spoon out of the drawer, and went to the refrigerator, but when she was about to open the refrigerator she saw a piece of paper tapped to it. She took the paper off the refrigerator and read what it said.

_Ayame,_

_If you wake up and read this before I get back, I just wanted to tell you that I went to drop your brother off at morning practice, and then I have some things that I have to do before I return home. I will be back soon._

_Love,_

_Your mother_

After reading the letter, Ayame placed it on the counter so that she could get the milk out of the refrigerator. She then went back to the table and poured the milk into the bowl, and then started to eat. It was then that it struck her that was home alone, and that scared her a bit, mainly because she had been alone in the hospital, and she did not want that to happen again. But before she could go into a state of franticness, she decided to ignore the fact that she was alone, and continued to eat her cereal. It didn't take her long to finish her cereal, so she went back to who room to get a change of clothes because she was still in her pajamas. When she got her clothes she went to the bathroom to take a bath, and brush her teeth. When she was sitting in the bathtub she thought to herself /I wonder what I should do for the next couple days since I'm supposed to stay home to make sure that I'm completely./ While she thought about that, she got out of the bathtub, and drained the water from it. She then got dressed and was towel drying her hair just enough to where it would not soak her shirt. She then grabbed her toothbrush and brushed her teeth. After she was done in the bathroom, she went back downstairs to see if her mother was back yet. When she got back downstairs she saw that her mother was nowhere to be found. Now she thought to herself /who would leave their six year old daughter home alone for this long, I could understand for a little bit, but for three hours?/

Now that she had nothing to do she went over and sat on the couch and turned on the television. After flipping through the channels she finally stopped on a show that interested her. She had decided to watch a show on animal planet to pass the time. After that show was over, Ayame got really bored, so she decided to play a round of Mario Party Six for the GameCube. About fifteen minutes after Ayame had started the game, her mother finally decided to return home. When Ayame noticed that her mother had finally returned home she turned to her mother and asked "Mom, why were you got so long?"

"I'm sorry I was gone so long honey, but I had some stuff to do, didn't you read the letter that I had left you?"

"Yes, I did, but it said that you would be back soon, but I don't call three and a half hours soon. What was so important that you had to take three hours for?"

"I'm sorry Ayame, but I'm not going to tell you that."

"But, why not?"

"Because, it is something that you don't need to know about, just trust me when I say that."

"Ok… fine." With that Ayame returned to her game and left her mother alone.

Several hours later Shinji had returned home from class, and his afternoon practice. When he entered the house he shouted "Hey mom, I'm home."

"Welcome back honey, dinner is almost ready, so why don't you go upstairs and wash up for dinner. Oh, and while you are at it can you tell your sister to wash up for dinner too?"

"Yeah, sure mom. I'll tell her." And with that he went upstairs to wash up for dinner, but before he got to the bathroom, he stopped by his room to drop off his tennis gear, and then went across the hall to get Ayame. When he saw that her door was closed he knocked on the door and waited for a response before he opened the door.

Ayame was in her room playing with her favorite dolls when she heard a knock on her door. She answered the knock with "its open, you can come in."

After hearing that Shinji opened the door and told said "Ayame, mom told me to tell you that dinner is almost ready, so you need to get washed up for dinner."

"Ok, I'll get there in a minute, just let me put my dolls away first."

"Ok, just make it fast. You know how mom gets when we keep her waiting."

"Oh, yes, I know all too well." With that in mind Ayame put her dolls away and went to the bathroom to wash up for dinner. After she was done with that she went downstairs to the dining room to see that he mother and brother were both seated waiting on her to get over there and get seated so that they could start eating.

While they were eating they were having a nice conversation.

"Hey Shinji, how were school and practice today?"

"Mom, why do you ask me the same question everyday, when you already know what I'm going to tell you?"

"I don't know, maybe because you might just give me a different answer one day, you never know."

While those two were talking Ayame was not paying any attention to them, but rather her thoughts about when she would ever be able to see her friends again. But something had disturbed her thoughts.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered something." Shinji said out of nowhere.

"What is it that you remembered Shinji?"

"On my way home I stopped by Ayame's school to pick up the work that she has missed. It is upstairs in my room, I'll get it to her after we are done with dinner."

After dinner was done Shinji went upstairs to his room to grab the work that Ayame's teacher had given to him for her to do. He then went to her room and noticed that her door was not closed, but she was not in there, so he put the papers on her bed and then left the room. When he went back downstairs he told his mother that he was going out with a couple friends and that he would be back soon. After he had informed her of that he went back outside of the house and started walking in the direction of the park. But before he could get to the park he heard somebody call his name. After hearing his name he turned around to see who had said his name, and who he saw had surprised him.

**Authors Note**: Well there is chapter 4. I would like to thank those of you who read this. I don't have much to say at this moment, but I would like to thank that only person who left a review for the last chapter, Artsygirl613, if you are reading this I would like to thank you for clearing up that little mistake for me, and also thanks for the complement. Again, I would like to remind you guys that you are free to leave me a review and tell me what you think, I would really appreciate that considering I only six reviews in all. But anyway, I will update as soon as I possibly can, which will hopefully be soon, so bye until next chapter.

'


	5. A Shocking Surprise

**Authors Note**: Here is chapter 5 as I promised. I hope you will enjoy reading it.

Chapter 5:

A Shocking Surprise

Shinji had been sitting on a bench at the tennis courts waiting for his friends to show up. He suddenly heard a voice calling his name. He turned around, and what he saw surprised him.

"Keiko san? It's been a long time since I have seen you."

"Yeah, I know. It's been about five years since we have seen each other."

"I'm so happy to see you again."

"I'm happy to see you too. So, where are you going this time of night?"

"Oh, I'm just going to hang out with a couple of my friends from my tennis club, if you like you could join me."

"Ok, are you sure that you don't mind?"

"No, I don't mind, actually, I'd like some time to catch up with each other."

"Ok, I would like that too, it seems like we don't even know each other anymore."

"So, first things first, why are you here, I thought your family moved to Okinawa, and was not moving back to Tokyo."

"Yeah, we did move, but I came back to visit my cousins. They live in this neighborhood, to be exact, they live just down the road from you, provided you still live in the house I remember you living in."

"Yeah, I still live there. My mom refuses to move from that house, but if you are here to visit them, then why are you out here?"

"Obliviously, and to answer your question, I already visited them, so I decided to go out for a bit before I return back there for the night. "

"So, since you are a year older than I am, doesn't that mean that you are a third year in middle school?"

"Well, yes I am, and that would mean that you are a second year now?"

"Yes, that would be correct."

"Hey, do you remember when we used to play tennis together when we were young?"

"Yes, I do. It was so much fun. Hey, instead of just watching, would you like to play with us too?"

"I'd be glad to."

"Cool, I'll be looking forward to seeing how good you have gotten over the years."

"Same here, I'd like to see how good you are too."

As those two were talking to each other the rest of the group had shown up unnoticed due to the other two being too engrossed in their conversation to notice they were there. So the other two just sat there for a couple minutes to see if their good friend and the girl that they have never met before would ever notice them there. When they were still being ignored they decided to gain the attention of the other people on the courts.

"I'm sorry to intrude on your conversation, but we have arrived, and have been here for about ten minutes now."

"Oh, I'm sorry guys, but I was conversing with my friend here. I have not seen her in five years."

"Oh, it's always nice to see old friends again."

"Yeah, it is. Oh, where are my manners, guys, this is Keiko Hayashi."

The boy on the left was first introduce himself "Well, hello Keiko san, my name is Toshiro Tamagatchi, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Hello Toshiro kun, it's a pleasure to meet you too."

"Now the other boy introduced himself "Hi there Keiko san, I'm Ryu Chow, and I'm glad to make your acquaintance."

"It's nice to meet you too Ryu kun."

"Hey Shinji, since the introductions are over, why don't we play a little match."

"Sure Toshiro, I was hoping that you would say that. Oh and I hope you guys don't mind but I was hoping to play doubles, and to have her as my partner."

"Sure, anything you want. We don't really care."

"Cool, then let's get the game rolling, shall we?"

"Shouldn't we wait for Kimiko?"

"Speaking of Kimiko, where is she Toshiro?"

"How should I know?"

"She is your sister, I was thinking that you might know where she is."

"Well, I could call her and see what is taking her so long." With that Toshiro took out his phone and called his sister. The phone rang a few times, and on the third ring a voice answered on the other line.

"Hello?"

"Hey Kimiko, it's me Toshiro."

"Toshiro? Why are you calling me?"

"Well, because I was wondering what is keeping you? You said that you would join me and the rest of the guys tonight for a few games of tennis."

"Oh yeah, sorry, I guess I forgot. I'm at the mall with Saya at the moment. I'll be there soon. Just let me tell Saya san that I have to go, I had some plans that I had made previously. Unless you guys don't mind if she tags along with me. I know she does not know how to play, but she loves to watch you guys play."

"That's fine, I don't mind her coming, and I don't think the others would mind either."

"Ok, then I'll see you soon." After she said that she hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket.

**At the mall with the two girls**

"Hey Kimiko, who was that?"

"Oh, that was just my brother. He was reminding me of the plans that I had made with him and his friends to play some tennis tonight."

"Oh, but I thought you were going to hang out with me tonight."

"Oh I will be."

"But does that mean that you are ditching them and not going?"

"No, not at all. I'm going, but you are coming with me."

"Cool, I absolutely love watching them play. Are you playing, or are you going to be the referee?"

"I'm not sure, I'll find out when we get there. But we have to hurry, they are all there, and they are getting impatient. "

"Ok, then let's hurry up and get out of here."

"Alright." And with that they exited the mall, and sprinted to the tennis courts where the boys have already assembled.

**On the court with the guys**

"Well, Toshiro, is she coming or not?"

"Yeah, she is coming, but Saya san will be with her. I hope that is ok with you guys."

"Yeah, Toshiro I don't mind. I mean I brought an extra person along didn't I?"

"Yeah Shinji, I didn't think it would bother you, but I'm more of the lines thinking about Ryu caring about it."

"Me care, are you kidding me? That girl is so beautiful, why would I care if she is here or not?"

"Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot you have a crush on Saya. So obviously you would not care if she came along to watch us."

"Hey, Toshiro, that is not cool. You know that is not true." Ryu said while blushing a bit.

"If that is the case, then why are you blushing at the mentioning of all of this?"

"I….. I don't know, all I know is that I don't like her, at least not like that anyway."

"Ok, whatever you say."

While those two were arguing on that subject Keiko and Shinji just watched them, Keiko with a confused face, and Shinji with a very amused face.

"Hey Shinji?"

"Yeah Keiko?"

"Do they always act like this?"

"Oh, yes, all the time."

"I actually find it kind of amusing to watch. It keeps them from picking on me, which is always a plus."

"I guess you are right, it is kind of fun to watch."

**With the two girls**

"Hey Kimiko?"

"Yeah, what is it Saya?"

"Tell me, do you like Shinji? I mean I see the way you look at him."

"Yeah, he is a cool guy. What is wrong with liking him?"

"Nothing, I was just asking."

"Hey Saya?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you feel about Ryu? I have also seen how you look at him."

"I like him a lot. He is such a nice guy, sometimes I wonder if he likes me too, but I don't know."

"Maybe you should ask him how he feels about you. He is going to be at the courts."

"You know what, maybe I will ask him, I mean I really like him, and have for a couple years now."

"You know what, I say go for it, I mean if you like something or someone, and you really want it, then I say go for it."

"You know what I think I will." After she said that they fell silent until they reached the tennis courts.

**At the tennis courts**

About five minutes later, Kimiko and Saya finally arrived at the courts where everybody had been waiting. When the got there, they noticed that Toshiro and Ryu were bickering about something, like always, and they noticed that Shinji was talking to a girl that they had not met before. So they decided to walk over to where Shinji was sitting and took a seat by him.

"Hey Shinji, who is this?" the both asked at the same time.

Shinji looked over to his side a little startled because he had not known that they had arrived.

"Oh Kimiko and Saya, you two finally made it."

"Yeah, but you didn't answer our question. Who is she?"

"Oh, this is Keiko." Both girls nodded to show a form of acknowledgement.

"Hello Keiko, I'm Saya, and it is very nice to meet you."

Keiko smiled at her and then replied back. "It is really nice to meet you too Saya."

Keiko then looked at Kimiko. Kimiko noticed this and gave her a very mean look before introducing herself.

"Hi, I'm Kimiko."

"Hi Kimiko, it's a pleasure meeting you."

"Yeah sure, whatever."

Shinji then noticed how Kimiko was responding to Keiko and asked Saya what was wrong with her.

"Hey Saya, what is wrong with Kimiko? She seems upset about something."

"Oh, she is just jealous."

"Jealous? Of what?"

"She is jealous that you are talking to Keiko, and not her."

"Oh…., Ok then. Thanks for telling me that."

"Sure thing Shinji."

After getting that information out of Saya Shinji though to himself /Well, this is going to be a long night./ He then went to go and stop the other two from arguing like little kids.

"Hey, you two give it a break already. The girls are here, and I'm ready to start the match now."

"Oh, we are sorry, we did not notice that they were here."

With that Shinji got everybody's attention. "Ok everybody, we are about to start. We will be playing doubles for tonight. Everybody please pick your partners, I will be partnering with Keiko."

"Ok, then I guess I'll partner up with Toshiro." said Ryu.

"But now I don't have a partner."

"Well, then that leaves you as the referee Kimiko." Shinji said.

"Fine then." Kimiko then climbed into the chair and the match began.

"So, which, smooth or rough?" Shinji asked as he spun his racket to decide who would serve first.

"Smooth." Ryu had determined before the racket stopped spinning and fell over to reveal rough.

"It's rough, so we serve first." Shinji had said, and then looked to his partner, "So, do you want to serve first or will I?"

"I want to serve first, if it's ok with you."

"That's fine with me, show them what you are made of Keiko."

"Alright." With them in agreement, Keiko and Shinji got into position to start the match.

"The match between Chow and Tamagatchi pair and Hamasaki and Hayashi is about to begin. One set match Hayashi to serve.

Keiko then took a ball out of her pocket and started to bounce it with her right hand and hold her racket in her left.

When everybody saw that Keiko was left handed they all put on astonished looks, and many different thoughts went through everybody's minds, everybody except Shinji who just smirked at everybody's surprise and Kimiko, who just continued on with her evil glare.

/So, she is a lefty, this should be an interesting match./ Ryu had thought to himself, and then put a smile on his face.

/She's a lefty? Why didn't she say anything about it?/ Toshiro was thinking to himself

/She's a lefty that is so cool!/ Saya thought.

/She's a lefty, so what. I don't see what is so special or surprising about it./ Thought Kimiko.

Keiko noticed that everybody was staring at her and wondered why, but she pushed that to the back of her mind for the time and proceeded with her serve. Ryu and Toshiro were ready for the return on the receiving side of the field, but before they had time to respond the ball had smashed into the ground and zoomed right past them.

"15 love"

Keiko then bounced the ball again, and was about to serve again when someone called out to her from the other side of the field.

"Hey Keiko, that was an awesome serve. How did you learn to control the ball with that kind of speed?" Toshiro had asked.

"I don't really know, but all I can think of for that is years of training under my father."

"Your father? Was he somebody with tremendous skill or something?" Ryu asked

"Well actually, yes he is. I'll explain later, but for now can we continue with the match?"

"Sure." They both responded together.

"Then you might want to get ready because here comes another speed serve."

She then served the ball, but this time Toshiro was able to return the ball over the net. "Sorry Keiko, but the same trick won't work on me twice."

"Trick? What are you talking about Toshiro? I was not doing anything special, it was just a regular serve." Responded Keiko as she returned the ball with a backhand shot aimed to the left corner of the court.

"Well, it looked like a trick to us." This time it was Ryu who responded while he hustled to get to the ball before they could score.

"Well, it wasn't." She responded back as the ball landed in the middle of the court on, and she motioned for Shinji to return it. Shinji had returned the ball over the net, but as soon as the ball had went over the net it took a dive and fell directly to the ground and slid across the field.

"30 love"

"Hey guys, that was a trick." Shinji had said in a teasing tone.

"Hey Shinji what was that just now? I've never seen you use that before, and I'm your doubles partner."

"Yeah, I know you have never seen it before Toshiro. That is because I just learned how to use it, and I have never used it in a match before."

"Well, that was just plain awesome. How did you learn to use it?"

"Well, to be honest with you, I kind of originated from a shot I messed up on, and I then cam up with this."

"Hey boys, don't you think this is a little too much conversation? You could end up distracting each other." Keiko had said as she smashed the ball into the other side of the court and scored the final point needed to get the first game.

"Game Hamasaki and Hayashi pair, 1 game to love. Change court."

**At the Fuji household**

"Hey mom, do you mind if I go to the park down the road for a while. I will be back soon."

"Ok, but please be careful, I don't want you to get hurt being out there by yourself."

"Yeah, ok mom. I'll be leaving now." With that he left and closed the door behind him.

While Fuji was walking to the park he thought to himself for the entire walk there.

/I wonder who all is at the park now. I really want somebody to play with. Anybody would do, but there is one person in particular that I would love to see again to play with, but something tells me that I won't be seeing her for a while. Now that I think about it, I have seen her at school before. She is in the class across from mine. She seems to be liked by most, and she seems to be quite popular with the others in her class, although she is not social. Oh well, enough about her, I wonder where my cousin went to. I have not seen her in a while, and when I actually get the chance to see her it is only for a couple hours, and then she runs off again. She seriously needs to spend more time with the family./

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard some very familiar noises coming from not too far ahead of him. He then looked around at his surroundings, and saw that he was already in the park, and that he was heading to the tennis courts. So he continued in that direction because that is where the noise was coming from. When he actually got over to the courts he noticed that there was a match going on, so he decided to go over to observe the match. When he decided to go close he automatically recognized two of the people who were playing, but he decided to not disturb them until they were done with their match, so he decided to sit on the bench that was closest to the courts to get a better view of the match. He didn't even notice that there was another person sitting on that very same bench. Saya had shifted her attention away from the match for a moment only to notice that there was an extra person sitting on the bench with her.

"Well, hello there. Who are you and how long have you been there?"

"Oh, I'm just the cousin of Keiko, and a friend of Shinji, and I just got here."

"Oh, really? Did you come to see them?"

"Not exactly, I actually didn't know that they were here, well, not until now anyway."

"If you didn't know they were here, then why are you here?"

"Well, I originally came here to play on the playground, but the familiar sound of tennis balls being hit lead me here."

"I see, well since you are here, why not enjoy the match?"

"Ok, sure. I think I will do that. What is the score anyway?"

"Oh, the score is now 5 games to 4 with Keiko and Shinji leading."

"Ok, whose serve is it now?"

"Umm, I do believe that is Ryu's serve now."

"Ok, now that I'm caught up, I can now watch the match."

**On the court**

"Hey Toshiro, if we win this game it will end up tied again, but if we lose it, we lose the entire match. So let's try to win it."

"Alright, I'll use one of my new serves that I have been working on, although none of them are quite perfected yet."

"Wait, a new serve? You actually came up with a new serve?"

"Well yeah, did you think that I would go as far as we have, and not come up with new techniques?"

"I was hoping that you wouldn't keep using the same tricks over and over again, and I guess my hopes came."

"Hey, could you two hurry and serve already? We don't have all day to wait." Shinji had shouted from the other side of the court.

"Alright, we're sorry, Shinji. No need to get impatient."

Toshiro picked up the ball that was on the court and started to bounce it and caught it one final time before throwing it into the air, and hit the ball at it's highest point and hurled it over the net with so much power into the other side of the court that the ball left a gigantic hole in the court as it bounced enough for Shinji or Keiko to return it. Since it landed on Keiko's side of the court, she decided to try to return it, but when she did try to return it, the serve was too strong, and it busted her racket and injured her wrist causing her to completely drop it. After hearing that his partner had dropped her racket, Shinji turned to his partner and saw that she was holding on to her wrist. After seeing that, he walked over to her to see if she was ok.

"Are you ok Keiko?"

"No, I injured my wrist trying to return that shot."

"Here, let me see it."

"Ok."

"Oh, this is bad, it's already swelling up. We have to stop the match."

After seeing that Keiko had dropped her racket and did not pick it back up, but rather she held her wrist, Toshiro ad Ryu ran over to the other side of the court to see if everything was okay.

"Hey, is everything ok over here?" Toshiro had asked as he came to a halt next to the net.

"No, we have to stop this match. Keiko has injured her wrist trying to return that last shot."

"Oh, I'm sorry Keiko, I should not have put so much power into the shot." Toshiro had said in an apologetic tone.

"It's ok Toshiro, you didn't mean for this to happen."

It was then that they heard a voice coming from the bench just next to the court.

"Hey guys, did something happen?" Saya had asked the group that was standing on the courts.

"Yes Saya, I ended injuring my wrist." Keiko responded to Saya's question.

"Oh, if that's the case why do you come sit down, I have a first aid kit in my bag."

"Alright, although I don't know if you can do anything about it."

"Oh yeah, Keiko and Shinji, before I forget to tell you, you have a visitor." Saya said as she pointed toward the young boy next to her.

Both Keiko and Shinji looked to were she had pointed and there sat a young boy that they both recognized.

"Fuji kun? Shinji had said

"Syuusuke?" Keiko had said

"Why are you here?" They both asked together.

"Well, originally I came to the park to play, but I heard the sound of a tennis ball being hit so I came to check it out. I then noticed that you two were playing a match, so I decided to stay and watch."

"Oh, well I think I should go to hospital to get my wrist checked out. Syuusuke why don't you go home and tell your mom what happened, and that I will be home later."

"Ok, I will, but first, Shinji, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"How is Ayame doing, and when am I going to be able to see again?"

"Oh, Ayame is doing just fine, but she is not supposed to leave home for another couple days. But if you would like to see her before that, you could always come over to our house tomorrow to spend some time with her."

"Oh, that sounds like fun, I think I will do that." With that said and done, he turned around and started on his way back home to deliver the news to his mother.

"Alright, I'm going to walk Keiko to the hospital now, anybody who is wants to come along can, but if not then we are leaving." Shinji had said to the others that remained on the courts.

"Hey, Toshiro, I think that we should be heading home now, mom is expecting us home soon." Kimiko had said.

"Yeah, you are right Kimiko, I'm sorry guys, I would have come along, but she is right, if I don't get home soon I will be in trouble." Toshiro had said

"That's ok Toshiro, I understand." Keiko had said.

"Well, what about you two?" Shinji asked the two remaining people.

"I think I'll stay here for a while longer, I'm kind of enjoying being out here, and I'm not ready to go home just yet." Saya had said.

"Then I'll stay here with you, I don't want you to be left here alone, it is not safe for a girl to be left alone at this time of night." Ryu had said.

"Well, then it is settled. We'll be off then." Shinji had said. With that he and Keiko turned and started walking to the hospital.

Ryu and Saya had stayed at the courts and watched as all of their friends left. When all of them had left, it was just them at the courts. All was silent between them for a while, but the silence made Saya feel a bit awkward, and she had remembered that there was something that she wanted to talk to him about.

"Hey Ryu, can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure, what is it? Is something wrong?"

"Well, no, nothing is wrong, I just wanted to tell you something."

"Ok, well I'm listening."

/Well here goes nothing./ she thought to herself. "Well, what I wanted to tell you is that…." She had started but stopped without finishing what she was saying.

"Go on finish what were saying. Whatever it is I will listen to you."

/Ok, I'm going to have to tell him one day, now is as good of a time as ever./ she thought to herself. "Ok, as was trying to say earlier, Ryu, I just wanted to say that I'm in love with you, and have been for awhile."

**Authors Note**: Sorry about my delayed update. I had a case of writers block, and I got a bit distracted from the story as well. I have also been busy getting ready for college as well. But I finally finished the chapter and it the longest one I have ever written too. I would like to thank anybody who reviewed on my previous chapter, I think that I responded to you, and if I didn't, well then I'm very sorry. Also I don't remember if it mentioned Fuji having a cousin, if he doesn't have one, then he does now. It's my story, and I can put what I want in it, so deal with it. And before I get questions about the whole match thing, I didn't put a lot of detail into it because I'm trying to speed it up a bit so that I can move on to the main part of the story. But anyway, like always, if you have any questions, suggestions, or just want to give your opinion jut leave me a review. Yet again, I'm really sorry for the late update. I will seriously try to get the next update done in a more timely fashion, but I can't promise anything. I will see you guys next chapter. So until then bye.


	6. A New Relationship Blooms

**Authors Note**: Here is chapter 6, well, anyway on with the story.

Chapter 6:

A New Relationship Blooms

"Ryu, I just wanted to say that I'm in love with you, and have been for awhile."

After Saya had told him her true feelings for him, Ryu just sat on the bench motionless and said nothing. The only thing that he managed to do was to look at Saya with a very shocked face. While he was sitting there saying nothing he was thinking to himself. /I can't believe that she actually came out and said that. I mean I have always liked her, but I was too afraid to say anything to her about it because I did not think she felt the same way about me. But now I know that she shares the same feelings I do. Just hearing that has made me so happy and it has lifted some weight off my mind./ Ryu was brought out his thoughts when he heard somebody call his name.

"Ryu? Did you hear me?"

"Huh? Did you say something Saya?"

"Yeah…. I told you that I'm in love with you and you just zoned out on me."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to zone out on you Saya. The truth is that I was thinking about how happy I was when you said that to me."

"Does that mean that mean that…" Saya began to say but was cut off mid sentence.

"Yes, that means that I love you too, and I have for quite some time now."

"Oh Ryu, I'm so happy to hear that." After she had said that she pulled him into an embrace and they stayed that way for quite some time.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As Fuji approached his house he ran directly to his porch and sped right through his front door. As he sped through the door he didn't even take the time to close the door or remove his shoes. He ran straight to the living room looking for his mother, but she was not there. But he did happen to find his brother sitting on the couch watching a television program. So he decided to ask his brother where she was.

"Hey Yuuta, do you happen to know where mom is?"

"Yeah, she is upstairs. Why do you need her, and why does it seem like you are in a rush?"

"I'll tell you later, but for now I need to talk to mom." With that said and done he ran upstairs taking two at a time to speak with his mother. When he got upstairs, he ran straight toward his mother's room. But when he got to her room the door was closed, and a closed door generally meant that she did not want to be bothered at the moment, but in his mind this was an important situation. So he knocked on the door in hopes that she would answer. To his surprise she actually opened the door and permitted him entry into the room. When she opened the door, she automatically noticed the horrified, desperate look on his son's face, and decided it was best to see what was bothering him so much.

"Syuusuke, what is the matter?" she asked in a concerned voice.

"It's Keiko."

"Keiko, what happened to her?"

"She got injured while play tennis with Shinji and his friends, and is now on her way to the hospital with Shinji."

"Oh my, ok, I'm going to go there and see how she is doing."

"Oh, I want to come with you."

"I'm sorry, but I want you to stay here. You have school tomorrow, and I don't know how long we will be there."

"Ok, but I really do want to go with you." Fuji said in a disappointed voice.

"I know honey, but it is getting late, and you should be going to bed soon."

"I know, but….." he had started to say, but was cut off mid sentence.

"No more buts. You are staying here and that's the end of it. Do you understand me?"

"Yes mom."

"Good. I'm leaving now. I will be back when I get back."

"Ok."

"Be good, and tell your sister and brother I'm heading to the hospital to check up on Keiko and that I will be back later."

"Alright mom." Fuji said in an annoyed voice as his mother turned to go out the door.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Shinji and Keiko were just arriving at the hospital when Shinji looked over at Keiko and saw she was still holding onto her wrist and had a very pained look on her face.

"You wrist still hurts doesn't it?"

"Yeah, but it'll be fine for now."

After they exchanged those few words everything got silent between them. As soon as they approached the hospital doors they slid open automatically and they just walked in. When they entered the hospital it was not as crowded as they thought it would have been which seriously surprised them. So they went up to the reception counter and signed in. They were then told to wait in the waiting room for the doctor to see them. They then went to find a seat in their designated area of the waiting room and took their seats. They had been waiting for about a half hour before they started to get a bit bored and decided to have a conversation to pass the time.

"Hey Keiko, I'm sorry that this happened to you, I should have told you that Toshiro was a bit of a powerhouse before we even started the match."

"Don't worry about it. I should have left that one to you, I mean it was in both of or reaches, so don't blame yourself."

"I'm not blaming myself."

"Well, that is what it sounded like to me."

"Well, I wasn't, so don't accuse me of doing so." Shinji said in a very loud, irritated voice.

"Hey, don't you dare start yelling at me, I did nothing to you." Keiko said in a voice that matched Shinji's voice perfectly.

"You know what, I don't have to deal with your attitude, I'm leaving." Shinji said in a harsh tone, and then got up and started for the doors.

"Fine leave see if I care." Keiko said just audible enough for him to hear as he was heading to the door. She watched him as he left, and unknown to herself she had tears running down her face. When she finally noticed that she was crying, she wiped the tears off her face, and started to think to herself.

/Man, why did I have to start getting all upset with him. There was really no reason for it at all, I feel so stupid, because of me he got mad, and is now leaving me here alone. If only I wouldn't have gotten upset over the stupidest thing he would not be leaving me like this. If only I could stop him to tell him I'm sorry, but it's too late now. I don't think that he wants to hear from me at the moment. Maybe I'll try to call him later tonight./

As Shinji was leaving the hospital he was thinking to himself.

/Was it just me, or did it sound like she was crying as I was leaving? Maybe I should not have gotten so upset with her back there. Now that I think about it, it was a really stupid reason to get upset. To make things worst, I ended up upsetting her as well. I will have to apologize to her later./

As Shinji had left the hospital he ran into a familiar face. As he passed her she noticed who he was and decided to stop him.

"Shinji, is that you?"

"Yes it is me, Ms. Fuji. Sorry, but I can't talk right now. I have somewhere I have to be. So I'll be going now."

"Ok, but before you go, is Keiko still in there?"

"Yes, she is still in there."

"Ok, thanks. It was nice to see you again Shinji. Tell your sister and mother that I said hi."

"Ok, I will, bye Ms. Fuji, I'll see you again sometime."

"Goodbye Shinji." Ms. Fuji said as she went inside the hospital to find her niece.

As Shinji watched her enter the hospital he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number and waited for somebody on the other end to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Ayame, it's me Shinji. Is mom around?"

"Yeah, hold on I'll go get her."

"Shinji? What's the matter?"

"Nothing important. Can you come pick me up?"

"Yeah, sure. Where are you?"

"I'm at the hospital, and before you overreact, I'm fine. I just had to drop Keiko off."

"Ok, I'll be there soon. I just have to get your sister ready to go."

"Ok, I'll see you later, bye."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As Yoshiko entered the hospital she searched frantically for Keiko. After searching for about a minute, her eyes finally stumbled onto Keiko, who was sitting not far from her to the left. She then when directly over to Keiko and took the seat that was not occupied. As she sat down, she noticed that Keiko was crying. So she decided to consult her to see what was the matter.

"Keiko, what wrong?"

Keiko looked up to see who was talking to her only to come face to face with her aunt. After she saw that it was somebody she knew and trusted she decided to tell her what had just happened.

"Oh, Aunt Yoshiko, I think Shinji hate me now."

"Why do you say that my dear?"

"Well, because we just had a pretty bad dispute, and he just left in a bad attitude."

"Oh I'm sure he doesn't hate you Keiko. To be exact, when I saw him leaving I saw a bit of sorrow on his face, but for the most part there was anger."

"Oh, I see. Well, at least I know he does not hate me. Oh yeah, why are you here?"

"I'm here because Syuusuke told me that you had injured yourself, and that you were here with Shinji, but when I got here he was leaving."

"Oh, I see. Well I'm happy that you are here. I didn't want to stay here alone."

"Well, then it is a good think that I came when I did."

"Yeah, I am." It was then that they heard the doctor call her name waiting for a response. After they heard him calling her name they stood up and moseyed across the room to meet up with the doctor. When they made it over to him he automatically told the two to follow him into a vacant room. Once they were in the room he introduced himself.

"Hello, my name is doctor Con. May I ask what brings you here tonight?"

"I'm here because I have injured my wrist while playing tennis."

"Oh, I see. Well let's have a look at it."

"Ok." As the doctor was examining her wrist, she winced from pain. It was then that the doctor decided to let go of her wrist, and he then started to speak.

"I'm pretty sure that you have broken your wrist, but in order to get a proper diagnosis we must do some x-rays, so if you follow me we can get started with that."

"Ok" was all that Keiko managed to say to the guy standing in front of her.

As Keiko and Yoshiko followed the doctor down the hall to get to the radiology area of the hospital she could not help but to think back to the incident with Shinji back in the waiting room. Just thinking about it made her want to cry again, the incident was eating her up inside because she was putting all of the blame on herself, but that was because she could not find the strength in side herself to put the blame on Shinji, so she put all the blame on herself. Unbeknown to the girl was that she was being watched.

Yoshiko was walking alongside her niece and was observing her as the walked down the hall to the x-ray room. She saw how Keiko's face had suddenly changed expressions, and she had a feeling she knew why. She thought to herself. /There are two reasons why her face changed expressions like that, either she is thinking about her fight with Shinji, or she is in a lot of pain at the moment. Either way, I think that I should consult her about it./ After she stopped thinking that she decided to follow through with what she was thinking.

"Keiko, are you ok?"

"Yeah, why are you asking?"

"Because I can see by your facial expression that something is bothering you."

"Well, that is because something is bothering, but I really don't feel like talking about it at the moment."

"Ok, but remember that I am here for you whenever you feel like talking."

"Ok, I'll remember that whenever I need to talk to somebody."

Right after the two had finished their little conversation their attention was drawn to the doctor that they were following because he had spoken to them.

"We are at our destination, so would you please follow me inside." After he said that both of them followed him into the room, and shut the door behind them.

They were now back in the examination room where they waited for the doctor to return with the results from the x-ray. After waiting another five to ten minutes she doctor finally returned to the room where the two ladies were waiting. He was putting the x-rays up so that he could see them, and explain what was going on.

"Just as I originally thought, your wrist is broken." He explained as he pointed to the fractured part in the picture. "It is not a severe fracture, but it will still take some time to rebuild itself."

After they were done putting the cast on Keiko's wrist, Keiko and Yoshiko left the hospital and headed back to the Fuji residence.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ryu and Saya were still sitting on the bench at the tennis courts enjoying the company of one another. It was then that Ryu looked up at the sky and realized that it was getting late.

"Hey Saya, it's getting late, I think we should start heading home."

"Ok."

"I'll walk you home. To be truthful, I don't want you walking home alone at this time of night."

"Oh, that is so sweet of you to be concerned about me, but I don't like far from here, I can walk by myself. Besides, I don't want you to walk me home and then turn around and have to walk back to your house."

"I don't care if I have to walk back home, I actually want to walk you home to spend more time with you."

"Ok, then let's get going. I bet my parents are getting worried."

"Wouldn't they have called you by now if they wanted you home?" Ryu asked while slinging his bag over his shoulder.

"Yeah, but I accidentally left my phone on my bed, so even if they did call they would not get a hold of me."

"I see, then we should hurry up and get you home before your parents start to think something happened to you."

With that they stared walking in the direction of Saya's house hand in hand. While walking they decided to just walk in silence and just look at their surroundings, and enjoy each other's company on the walk back home. After arriving at Saya's house they said the goodbyes, but just as Saya turned and took a few steps to go inside Ryu grabbed her wrist and turned her around and lightly pulled her into an embrace and whispered into her ear "I love you, and I'll see you tomorrow in class." But what he did after he said that really surprised Saya; he leaned in close to her face, and kissed her softly on the cheek before turning and leaving a stunned Saya standing there in her front yard.

**Authors Notes**: I'm so sorry for the much delayed update, but I have been so busy with my classes and homework that I have not had time to work on this. Also I had a bit of writer block, but I think that is gone for now. Again I am very sorry for the delayed update. But since class started back up again I have not had much time to myself. I will still update, but it might take me awhile to update. But enough of my rambling. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and leave a review if you feel like it, or not, either way I really don't care. Anyways, bye, bye until next time.


	7. Forgiveness and Grief

**Authors Note**: I managed to find some free time in my busy schedule, so I decided to try and update. So here is chapter 7.

Chapter 7:

Forgiveness and Grief

As soon as Shinji enter his house, the first thing he did was take off his shoes, and head upstairs to his room. As he entered his room, he shut the door, and locked it so that nobody could enter and disturb him. When he was in his room he laid down on his bed and stared up at his white ceiling, completely ignoring the rest of his walls that were painted red. All he wanted to do right now was forget about what had happened earlier at the hospital, and make it as if it never happened. After a few hours passed he eventually drifted off into a light slumber.

* * *

When Keiko walked into the door of her aunt's house where she will be residing for a week, the first thing she did was take off her shoes, and then decided to heard upstairs to the bathroom to take a relaxing bath. But first she stopped by the guest room where she is sleeping to get a change of clothes. As she was settling herself into her bath being extra careful about her casted wrist, so as to not get it wet. When she got herself settled into her bath, she let her mind wander, and did not think about anything in particular. As she did that, she was admiring how nice the bathroom looked with its white tiles, bathtub, sink, and toilet, and to go with it baby blue decorations made it that much more likable. After an hour or so, she got out of her bath and got dressed in the pajamas that she had picked out to wear. She then made her way down the hall back to her room, her room. By the time that Keiko made it back to her room it was ten at night, and the only people still awake were her, and her aunt. So she decided to stay in her room and read a book until she got tired. She had been reading a book for a couple hours, and still wasn't tired, so she decided to drop the book, and she then headed toward the computer check and see if anybody was online that she could talk with to pass the time. To her surprise, there were two people online at the time, her best friend Mimi, and Shinji. Mimi being online was not really a surprise, but it really surprised her to see his name. She then began to wonder if she should message him and apologize for how she acted earlier, but she decided against doing it, and started a chat with her best friend instead.

* * *

Shinji had woken up from his slumber for a reason that was unknown to him. He automatically looked at the clock to see what time it said, and he saw that was almost midnight, so he decided to get online and find something interesting to do. When he checked his messenger, he was surprised to see that there was actually a person online, but he was not sure that she really wanted to talk with him at the moment, so he decided to leave her alone for now and see if she would messages him before he messages her. So he decided to search the web for something interesting to do. When he could not find anything to do, and she never messaged him, he decided to send her a message to see if she would actually respond to it. To his surprise, she did respond.

* * *

Soon after she had started the conversation with Mimi, Mimi had to get off and go to bed. Right as soon as she was about to log off and go to bed herself, she received a message from Shinji. She instantly read the Message that was in front of her face to see what he wanted, once she read it she responded back.

Hey Keiko, what you doing up at this hour?

I couldn't sleep. Why are you up? Don't you have class tomorrow?

Yeah, I do have class tomorrow, which is why I should go to bed, but first I have to ask you something.

What is it that you wanted to ask me?

Well, I don't have time to really talk tonight, so is there any chance that you could meet me at the park we were at earlier after I get done with practice around six? We can talk then.

Ok. We can meet there around six, to be truthful; I needed to speak to you about something too.

Alright, then it is settled. We meet in the park at six. I'll see you tomorrow.

Ok, I'll see you then.

After she sent that message, Keiko saw that Shinji signed off, so she too signed off to go to bed herself. She then got out of her computer chair, and rolled down the blankets on the bed, and lied down, then pulled them over herself and went to sleep for the night.

* * *

Shinji had woken up to the sound of his alarm clock going off. Like always he picked up his alarm clock, and turned it off. After getting out of bed he grabbed his school uniform and other various clothing articles off his dresser, and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. After he was done in the shower he headed down stairs for breakfast. When he got downstairs and into the kitchen he was greeted by his mother and sister.

"Good morning Shinji, why don't you have a seat with your sister, I will have breakfast done in a few minutes."

"Hello big brother. How are you doing this morning?"

"Good morning mom and Ayame. What are we having for breakfast?"

"Yeah mom, what are we having?"

"We are having eggs, toast, sausage, and orange juice."

"That sounds good." Both kids said together.

"Well, if it sounds good, then eat as much as you like." Said their mother as she placed the food on the table and took a seat herself. Soon after that, the three of them loaded their plates and started to eat their breakfast. While they ate they carried out a conversation.

"So Shinji, do you have any plans tonight?"

"Actually I do. I'm supposed to meet Keiko at the park tonight right after practice. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I was asking because I have plans to go out tonight."

"Go out? With who?" both kids asked simultaneously.

"That is none of your business; I just need to make sure that you will be home to watch Ayame tonight."

"Ok, I'll make sure to be home tonight. What time do you want me home?"

"Can you be home by 9:30 tonight?"

"Yeah, I should be able to make it home by then."

"Thank you Shinji. I'm really sorry to put a burden on you by making you watch your sister on a Friday night, when you could be out with your friends."

"Don't worry about it mom. You know I don't mind watching her."

"I know you don't mind, I just feel a little guilty about it."

"Like I said, I don't mind, so don't worry about it. But I have to go now before I end up being late for class."

"Alright then, I'll see you later tonight honey." His mother said to him as he got up and was heading for the door. But before he could get out the door Shinji heard another person speaking to him.

"Hey Shinji, can I ask you something?"

"I'm sorry Ayame, but I don't have time right now. Can it wait until later? I promise I will listen to you then."

"Ok, I guess I will wait till later."

"Ok, then I will see you later Ayame." Shinji said and then he shut the door and started off for school.

* * *

As Shinji was walking to school he was observing his surroundings. There were so many things that he never realized were there, even though he walked the same path for almost two years. As he was walking something caught his eye. He stopped and looked at what had caught his eye. It was a beautiful field that was filled with the most beautiful flowers he had ever seen, flowers that had a wide range of assorted colors. The field of beautiful flowers surrounded a lake that had water that was as clear as crystal, and it glimmered like crystal as the morning sun reflected off of it. /That is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, I bet Keiko would love that place, maybe I'll show her before she leaves to go back home. Why did I not notice that place there before?/ he thought to himself. He was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't notice that somebody was standing next to him.

Hey Shinji, how are you doing this morning?" said the person. After hearing the voice Shinji jumped and turned his attention to where the voice came from only to find his friends Toshiro and Kimiko standing beside him.

"Geez Toshiro, don't scare me like that."

"I'm sorry Shinji; I didn't mean to scare you. Anyways, how are you doing this morning?"

"I'm doing fine this morning. How are you two doing this morning?"

"We are doing fine as well." Both Kimiko and Toshiro said together.

"That's great to hear. By the way, are you two prepared for the test in math today?"

"Yeah, I feel prepared for it." Kimiko said in a very confident tone.

"Wait, the test is today? I thought it was supposed to be on Monday." Toshiro said in a very concerned tone.

"Yeah stupid, maybe you should pay more attention next time." Kimiko told her brother.

"Hey, don't speak to me like that. You should not speak to you elders like that."

"Sorry, but I don't consider you my elder, you are only two minutes older than me."

"I'm still older than you, so there."

"Well, I…" Kimiko began to say, but was interrupted by Shinji.

"Ok, can you two stop bickering like little kids, it is so annoying." Shinji said in a very irritated tone.

"Alright, we'll stop, chill out." Toshiro said.

After the little outburst that Shinji had everybody walked in silence until they got to the school. When they got to the school they split up and went to their lockers, and to their designated classrooms. As Shinji was about to enter his classroom he heard somebody call his name, so he turned to where the voice came from to see who had called his name and found Ryu and Toshiro calling him.

"Hey Shinji, we are making plans tonight to go to the movies or something like that with the girls. Would you like to come?" Ryu asked.

"I'd like to, but I have to watch Ayame for my mother tonight. I'm sorry, but maybe next time."

"Ok, well it's too bad that you can't come. Well I have to go before I'm late for class, so I'll see you two at lunch." Ryu said.

"Sounds good, see you then." Both boys said together as they watched their friend leave.

* * *

Kimiko was sitting in her desk waiting on Saya to get into the classroom. There was ten minutes before class started, and she saw no sign of her, so she just thought that Saya was not coming to class, so she took out her book and other materials that were needed for class, as well as her favorite novel and started to read. She had managed to get through five pages when she heard the chair next to hers slide against the floor. She then closed her book and put it down to face and to talk to her best friend.

Hey Saya, I thought that you were not going to be able to make it today."

"Yeah, sorry about that, I was running late this morning."

"Oh well, it happens sometimes. Anyway, I have so much to talk to you about."

"Oh, I have some things I want to tell you too."

"Cool, but first things first, I was asked by my brother and Ryu to ask you if you wanted to join us and go see a movies or something like that tonight."

"That sounds fun, but I can't make it tonight. My parents are going out of town for the weekend, and I have to stay home and watch the house. You guys will have to go without me,"

"Ok, I'll tell them. Anyway, how was your night with Ryu last night?"

"Like, oh my god, it was awesome. We spent quite a bit of the night together. He even walked me home."

"Wow… did he kiss you too?"

"What? No he did not, although I wish that he had."

"Oh, well maybe he is just waiting for the right moment."

"Maybe, but it doesn't really matter. It will happen when it happens."

"Yeah, you're right. Man, I wish I were as lucky as you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the boy you have had a crush on for years actually noticed you, and is now dating you. But I can't get the guy I like to do that, he notices me, yeah, but he has never asked me out."

"Oh, you are talking about Shinji. Look, maybe it just isn't meant to be for you two to be together. I mean it looks like he likes Keiko san anyway."

"Yeah, maybe I should just give up on him."

"Yeah, I agree, I mean there are plenty of other guys out there."

"I know, but still, I can't help but hope that maybe one day he and I could be together, I mean he is such a nice guy."

It was then that the teacher walked into the classroom and was ready to start class.

* * *

When Shinji and Toshiro finally got to their seats and got what was needed for their math test out, they only had five minutes till class started, so they used that time to talk.

"Hey Shinji, I'm sorry about what happened to Keiko san last night. How is she doing?"

"I'm not sure, I talked to her a little bit online last night, but we did not say much."

"But I thought you took her to the hospital."

"I did, but I had to leave early. But I'm meeting her later today right after practice, so I'll find out later."

"Ok, well, I hope everything is ok."

"Yeah, so do I." Shinji said that as he watched their teacher enter the room. "Oh, the teacher is here, we can continue talking later."

* * *

Several hours had passed and it was now lunch time. The group of friends was sitting in their normal spot under a cherry blossom tree eating their lunch.

"Man, was it just me or was that math test a little difficult?" Toshiro asked.

"It wasn't just you." Ryu mentioned before taking a bite of his lunch.

"Yeah, I think we can all agree that it was a bit on the difficult side." Saya said.

Everybody nodded their head in unison. They then started their own conversations.

* * *

Practice had ended early to Shinji's surprise, so that left him time to go home and change and do some other things before heading to the park to meet Keiko. As soon as he opened the door he was mobbed by a very excided husky. As soon as he got her under control he went upstairs to his room to change his clothes. When he came back downstairs he went to the kitchen to get a snack, and then went to go watch some TV for a bit, and the he noticed a note on it.

_Shinji,_

_Your sister and I went out shopping, we will be back around six, so if you home then we will see you, if not, then we will see you when you get back home._

_Love,_

_Mom_

After reading the note he put it on the table in front of him and turned on the TV for about an hour, and then went to go meet Keiko at the park.

* * *

Shinji was at the park waiting on Keiko to come, He looked at his watch and saw that she was already ten minutes late, but he did not care that much, he really needed to talk to her, so he did not mind waiting. He waited another five minutes and his phone started to ring, he looked at the number and saw that it was Keiko.

"Hello?"

"Hey Shinji, it's me Keiko. I'm sorry, but I can't make it to the park. Is it ok if you come over to my place so we can talk?"

"Yeah, I can do that, but I would have to bring Ayame with me if that is alright."

"Oh, yeah, that would be fine. Besides, Syuusuke has been bugging me about seeing her today or tomorrow anyway."

"Alright, I have to get home then, and get Ayame ready to go, I'll see you later."

"Ok, but please hurry. I really need to talk to you."

"Ok, I'll hurry. I'll talk to you soon." Shinji said before he hung up the phone and walked back to his house.

* * *

When he got back home his mother was glad to see him home early.

"Good, you are home, now I can leave for the night."

"Yeah, you can go and have fun tonight. I'll watch Ayame tonight. But I have to go over to Keiko's place, something came up and she could not meet me."

"Alright, but make sure that you take Ayame with you."

"I know, I was going to, where is she anyway?"

"She is in her room. Go up there and get her if you need to go now."

"Ok, I will." He then went upstairs to get Ayame. When he got upstairs he noticed that Ayame's door was already open, but he knocked on the door anyway.

"Oh, Shinji it's you."

"Hey Ayame, get ready to leave, you are coming with me to go to the Fuji house."

"Really, ok, I'm ready to go, just let me get my shoes on."

"Ok, just hurry up."

After a couple minutes they were on their way to their destination.

* * *

When they arrived at the Fuji residence Keiko automatically let them in. It was then that the two younger kids caught sight of each other and went to go play.

"I'm glad that you came. I really need somebody to talk to." Keiko said in a very sad tone.

"What's wrong?" Shinji asked in a very concerned toe, automatically picking up on her mood.

"I'll tell you, but first let's have a seat."

"Ok." Shinji said, and they then sat down on the couch.

"Well, I just heard from my mom about thirty minutes ago."

"Ok, what did she say?"

"She told me that my dad got into an automobile accident, and that he is in critical condition, and that his chances of survival are not very good." Keiko said while she broke down into tears. It was then that Shinji automatically took her into an embrace and tried to comfort her.

"I'm sure that everything will be ok."

"I hope so, oh and another thing, I have to leave to go back tomorrow. I have to go see him."

"I understand, I think that is a good idea."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, but I probably won't be seeing you for a very long time, but I will call you when ever I possibly can, and that is a promise."

"Ok, but before I leave here tonight, there is something I have to tell you."

"Ok, what is it?"

"Well, I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry about yesterday, and that I'm in love with you, and that I will miss you."

"Oh Shinji, I know that you didn't mean what you said yesterday, and I love you too. I will seriously miss you too."

What happened next really surprised her, she had finished her sentence and, was instantly in his arms again, but that was not what surprised her. The thing that surprised her was when his lips met hers with a soft kiss.

"It's getting late. I need to get Ayame and get home. I promise to talk to you sometime soon."

"Ok…." Was all Keiko managed to say, which caused Shinji to chuckle to himself. He then got off the couch to go find his sister. It did not take long to find her, for she was downstairs in the basement playing the Wii with Fuji. When took a closer look at the screen, he noticed that they were laying Wii tennis, and that the game was almost at the end, and the score was 5-4 with those two beating the computers. When the two finished he went up to them and got their attention.

"Hey Ayame, we need to get going now."

"Ok, but can we ask you something before we leave?"

"We?"

"Yeah, me and Syuusuke were wondering if you could teach us to play tennis like you do."

"I would have asked Keiko to teach me, but she broke her wrist, and she is leaving tomorrow." Syuusuke said to Shinji.

"Ok, I guess I could try to teach you two how to play. It actually sounds fun."

"Yay!" both kids cheered in unison.

"But that will have to wait until tomorrow or the next day. For now, we need to get home and get you to bed."

"Ok, I am feeling a little tired." With all of that behind them they said a final goodbye to everybody and went on their way home for a good nights rest.

**Authors Note**: Chapter 7 is now done, and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Well, just a heads up, the next chapter will pick up two years later. Anyway if you have any questions, complaints, suggestions, or whatever, just leave a review, or not, I really don't care either way, but it is much preferred to have some feedback so that I know how I'm doing. Well that is it for now. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon because I'm currently working on it. This is farewell until next chapter.


	8. Some Unpleasant News

**Authors Note**: Here is chapter 8, I hope you guys read and enjoy it.

Chapter 8:

Some Unpleasant News

It has been two years since Ayame and Fuji met, and they are now best friends. They do everything together whenever possible. At the moment they are about to enter the court to play a match, and hopefully take the win for their team. As they were entering the court, they were talking amongst themselves, not really paying attention to the other people around them.

"Hey Ayame, let's do our best to win this."

"Do you think that I would do anything worse than my best?"

"No, not at all, I was just trying to say something to make you feel less nervous, because you seem a bit nervous."

"Well, what do you expect, this is our first official doubles match. We have always played single up until now. Aren't you at least a little nervous?"

"Well, maybe just a little, but I should be fine."

"Let's hope so, I mean I would hate to lose our first official doubles match."

"So would I." As they were carrying out their conversation, they didn't even notice that their opponents had also made it to the courts and that the match was about to start.

"Hey you two, could you please stop your chit chatting, we would like to start the match now." Said a girl. After she said that both Ayame and Fuji stopped their conversation and looked at the girl and her partner.

"Well I'm sorry if we did not notice you there." Ayame said in a tone that made her sound like a stuck up brat, which started an argument between the two girls.

While the two girls were arguing Fuji and the other girl's partner just stood there waiting until one of them finally spoke.

"Hey, don't you think that we should stop them?" their opponent asked in a very shy, quiet voice.

"Yeah, I do, but I don't like to get in between Ayame and the person she is arguing with because she gets quite mean."

"I can see that, by the way my name is Tai and that is my sister Yuri."

"Oh, it's nice to meet you Tai. My name is Syuusuke and that is Ayame, she just happens to my best friend." Right after the two got done introducing themselves and their partners the referee stepped in to get the two girls to stop arguing so that they could start the match.

"Hey, you two stop arguing with each other. We need to get the match started." The referee said in a stern voice.

"Fine." Both girls said at the same time. As soon as the two girls stopped arguing the referee started to announce the start of the match.

"Double one match is about to begin. For the Tokyo Summer League Hamasaki and Fuji pair, for the Okinawa Summer League Ishiyama pair. One set match, Tokyo's Hamasaki to serve."

As soon as that was said Ayame got into position to serve. After she was in position, Ayame threw the ball into the air and smacked it into her opponents' side of the court so fast that they didn't even have time to respond before they saw it rolling on the ground behind them.

"15-0" the referee announced.

After hearing that Ayame got ready to serve again. When she served this time, the results were exactly like the last serve, her opponents could not respond to the serve.

"30-0"

Ayame served the ball again in the same way leaving her opponents without a chance to respond.

"40-0"

Repeating the same serve, Ayame scored the final point to take the first game.

"Game Hamasaki and Fuji pair 1-0."

After that was announced, the audience started to roar with excitement. They started to quiet down when they saw the next server get into position to serve, but before he began he said the first words spoken between the players since the match started.

"Say Hamasaki that is quite the serve you got there. Who taught you how to use that serve?" Tai asked out of pure curiosity.

"Oh, my brother taught me that serve."

"I see, well it is a good serve, but it is nothing compared to what you are about to see now."

"We will see about that." Ayame said in a challenging tone.

After the two finished exchanging words Tai proceeded with his serve. As he served Ayame and Fuji waited for the ball on the receiving side of the court, as the ball bounced on the ground Ayame was able to get to it before it got past her and was able to return the ball without much difficulty, gaining them yet another score.

"0-15"

Tai then served the ball again, this time the serve was much faster and stronger than the last serve. When it landed in the court it was in the middle of the court between Ayame and Fuji, so both of them made a move to get to it, but Ayame made it there first, so she hit the ball, but when she hit the ball it hit the net and landed in front of her giving the other team a score.

"15-15"

Tai then served again only to have it easily returned to his side of the court thus starting a rally between the two teams. The rally finally came to an end when Fuji smashed the ball into the other side of the court scoring yet another point for himself and Ayame.

"15-30"

The next two serves ended up in similar ways as the last serve, giving Ayame and Fuji another game.

"Game Hamasaki and Fuji pair 2-0."

The crowd began to cheer again up until Fuji took his first scoring them another point. His next three serves ended up leaving the other team stunned much like Ayame's serves had done giving them yet another game.

"Game Hamasaki and Fuji pair 3-0."

The rest of the match went by very quickly. Fuji and Ayame completely dominated the other team with a score of 6-0. After they returned to their team, everybody congratulated them and patted them on the back for a job well done. After their match were the three singles matches, which ended with the scores of 6-1, 6-3, and 6-0, earning the team a total game count of 6-0 making them the champions in the recreational league that they were participating in. To celebrate their victory, they threw a major party at the team's favorite place to celebrate things, the skating rink.

* * *

While they were enjoying their time at the skating rink, the kids were having so much fun that they were forgetting one very important thing, and that thing was the fact that they would be losing the oldest and best player on their team because he is too old to play for their team now. They were enjoying themselves until it was brought to the coach's attention that they were short on time and that she still had something important to do, so she called to the children to get their attention.

"Alright everybody, please come here, front and center." After she said that the whole team lined up in front of her and their oldest member. After checking to make sure that everybody was there the coach noticed that she was missing somebody.

"Hey, where is Hamasaki at?"

"She said that she had to go to the bathroom." One of the other girls said.

"Ok, I have something to tell you guys, but I guess I have to wait for Hamasaki to return."

A couple minutes later Ayame returned to see that the rest of the group was waiting on her so she went over to see what was going on.

"Good, now that everybody is here, I have an important announcement to make. As you all already know today is the last day for my son Toshiro to play alongside you. So I would like you all to listen to a few words that he has to say before we leave here tonight and to make things more memorable for him, I would like all of us to take a group picture so we all have memories of today. I now give the floor to Toshiro."

"Thanks mom for the speech, but now it is my turn to speak. As my mom mentioned, I am no longer allowed to play for this team now that I am twelve and going into junior high. I would like all of you guys to know that I had a blast playing alongside you, even if it was for a very short amount of time. With that being said, I would also like to say that I consider all of you my friends and that I will miss you all. I promise that after tonight I will try to keep in touch with all of you. That is all, so let's proceed to taking the photo so that we can get you guys home."

"That was a great speech Toshiro, now everybody please group up tallest in the back for the picture. Now I just need to find somebody to take the picture for us."

It was then that Shinji walked in to pick up his sister and Fuji to take them to their respective homes.

"Hey Shinji, could you please take a picture of us so that we can get going home?"

"Sure, I can do that coach. It's not a problem."

Shinji then took the camera and everybody got into position.

"Is everybody ready?" Shinji asked.

"Yes!" everybody said together. With that said, Shinji took the picture and returned the camera to the coach.

"Well, that's it for tonight. You are all free to leave now. Anyone whose supervision has not arrived yet is to wait here with me, and I will have a copy of the picture for everybody tomorrow."

Shinji then went over to Ayame and Fuji and said something to get their attention.

"Alright you two, it is time to leave now."

"Alright." They both said at the same time as they gathered their stuff and followed him out the doors.

* * *

On their way home the only thing that could be heard was the sound of the two young children talking about nothing and everything all at the same time. Shinji couldn't help but smile at what he was hearing from what the two younger children were talking about. He was enjoying listening to their conversation until his phone started to ring, so he took out his phone and saw that it was his mother, so he reluctantly answered his phone.

"Hello mom, what do you need?"

"Do you have Ayame with you?"

"Yes, you did tell me to go pick her up, so why wouldn't I have her with me?"

"Ok, then hurry and come on home, there is something that we need to talk about."

"Alright, we will be home soon, but first, we need to drop Fuji off at his house."

"Ok, but why is he with you?"

"Oh, because parents called me to see if I could pick him up knowing that I would be picking up Ayame, so I said that I would pick him up and take him home."

"That's nice, I'll see you when you get home."

"Alright, bye." Shinji said as he hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket.

"Hey, Ayame and Fuji, we need to hurry up and get moving."

"Why?" both kids said at the same time.

"Because our mother wants us home as soon as possible. Evidently she needs to talk to us about something, which means that we need to get Fuji home and go home ourselves."

"Ok." They both said in a tone that made them seem a bit bummed out.

After hearing that they picked up their pace and soon were at their respective homes.

* * *

As Shinji and Ayame walked into their house they didn't even have time to do anything but take off their shoes before they were called upon to join their mother and her new husband in the kitchen, where their mother was preparing dinner.

As the two heard their names being called the two responded "we'll be there in a few minutes, just let us get changed and put our stuff away."

"Alright, but make it quick. We have some very important stuff we need to talk to you two about." Their mother called from the kitchen.

"Alright." Both kids called at the same time. Then they both went upstairs to their rooms to put away their tennis gear and change their clothes and then went back downstairs to the kitchen to have the so very important discussion. As they walked into the kitchen they noticed that both their mother and her husband were now sitting at the table waiting for the two kids to get to the table.

"Good, you are here. Please hurry up and have a seat, both of you."

"Ok." Both kids said together as they sat down.

"What is so important that you need to tell us?" Shinji asked.

"What I wanted to tell you is that Kiyo just got offered a job in America, so we will be moving there." Their mother said with a very big smile on her face.

**Authors Notes:** Well, that is the end of chapter 8. I'm really sorry for the delay in my update. It will probably be like that from now on because I'm very busy at the moment, but I hope that you enjoyed the chapter none the less. Please feel free to leave a review if you have any questions, complaints, or just want to leave a nice comment; whatever is it, feedback is really appreciated. Well, anyway, that is all until my next update, which I hope won't take as long as this one did, but I can't promise that much.


	9. A Bit of Hope

**Authors Notes**: Here is chapter 9.

Chapter 9:

A Bit of Hope

"What? We are moving?" both kids asked simultaneously.

"Yes."

"But you can't do that to us."

"Yes I can and I will." Their mother said in a very stern voice. After she used that tone of voice, both kids became silent instantly because they had never heard her speak in that tone before, and it surprised them.

"Ok, I see that I don't have a say in any of this. How long do we have left here?" Shinji asked in a tone that made it obvious that he was unhappy about the situation.

"Yeah, how long do we have?" Ayame also asked.

"We will be leaving in two weeks." their mother answered back.

"Wait, why can't we at least wait until the end of the year? That way we won't have to worry about getting accustomed to things in the middle of the year?" Shinji asked.

"We would have done it that way, but we couldn't." their mother answered in an apologetic tone.

"Why not? What prevented you from doing that?" Shinji asked in a calmer tone than before.

"We could not do that because time did not allow for it." She answered again.

"What do you mean by that?" Ayame asked this time.

"What your mother means by that is that if we were to wait that long, I would miss out on a job opportunity." Kiyo said to them.

"Oh…" both kids responded together.

"Come on you two, cheer up. I'm sure that you will like it in America." Their mother said trying to cheer them up.

"I'm sure we will, but it just won't be the same. I mean we have friends here. Also what about our club activities, what are them going to do without us?" Shinji asked.

"I'm not sure honey, but I'm sure they will be able to figure something out."

"I'm not too sure about that mom. I'm the captain of the tennis club, and we are on our way to the nationals. How are they going to make it without me?"

"I'm sorry, but they will have to figure that out. I'm sure they will be able to do it. They are talented young men, and it's not like they are fully dependent on you."

"You are right, they don't fully depend on me, but we have worked very hard as a team to get to where are now. Now that we are moving it feels like a waste of time."

"Don't say that. It was not a waste. You helped those boys, so it was not a waste."

"Ok, I've had enough of this conversation, may I please be excused?"

"Sure honey, but dinner is almost done, so why don't you just stay?"

"No thank you. I'm not hungry at the moment."

"Ok then, if you are sure about that, then you may go."

"Yeah, I'm sure." After the conversation was over Shinji left the kitchen and went to his room where he stayed for the rest of the night.

* * *

Right after Shinji went to his room he shut the door behind him and went to lay down on his bed. While laying on his bed, he stared at his ceiling and thought to himself /I can't believe that they are doing this to me. Did they even put how it would affect Ayame and myself into consideration? I have been here in this house and in Tokyo since I was born. I have had so much success here, and I have friends here too. Why are they taking it all away from me now?/ He then rolled over to look at the picture of his team and him and again began to think to himself /I'm really going to miss you guys. I'm sorry that I won't be able to go to the nationals with you./ He then closed his eyes and tried to clear his thoughts for a little while at least.

* * *

While Shinji was in his room the rest of his family was in the kitchen eating dinner. While they were eating their dinner, little to no conversation was going on. Instead all eyes were on Ayame. That was because instead of being the overly social girl that she usually was, she said nothing. Also she barely touched her food, when usually with her voracious appetite, she would be asking for more by now. The way that the children were acting after the news was delivered to them was worrying their mother. She was thinking to herself when she heard somebody saying something.

"I'm done, so may I be excused please?" Ayame asked. After getting a nod out of her mother she got up and left the room after putting her plate in the sink. After she left the room all that remained in the kitchen were her mother and Kiyo. With the kids out of the room their mother took advantage of the moment to talk with Kiyo about the situation.

"Do you think that this is a good idea?"

"Do I think what is a good idea?"

"Moving to America, do you think it is a good idea?"

"Oh, I do think that it will be beneficial."

"But look at how the kids are responding to it. They both took it hard, but I think that it struck Shinji harder that it did Ayame."

"I know, but I'm sure they will be fine after they get used to things."

"Maybe, but I'm still worried about them."

"I know, but things will be better for us this way."

"You might be right, but I think that I will go check on them and see how they are doing."

"Alright, I'm not going to stop you." With that said and done, she went to go check on her children.

* * *

When Ayame left the kitchen she went upstairs to her room to think about things. As she got to her room, she decided to go sit on her window sill and look outside to help her think. As she looked outside through her window she thought to herself /I don't want to move away from here. I have my friends and my team here. If I move what will I have? I'm really going to miss it here./ After she thought that she decided that she wanted to relax in a nice warm bath, so she went over to her bed to retrieve her pajamas that were placed neatly on the corner of her bed and then left for the bathroom.

* * *

Shinji was about to turn out his lights and go to bed for the night when he heard somebody knock on his door. So instead of turning off the lights, he opened his door to find his mother standing there.

"What do you want mom?"

"I just wanted to talk to you."

"Oh really, well I'm not in the mood to talk right now."

"Well, I won't be long. I just want to ask you a few things."

"Ok, but please make it quick."

"Alright, first things first, can I come in, or do I have to stand here?"

"Sorry, you can come in, but please shut the door behind you." After hearing that she may enter, she came in and shut the door behind her.

"Now, to get to the point, how do you feel about the situation that we are in?"

"Mom, do you even need to ask? You already know how I feel about it, so why ask such a stupid question."

"Would it make you happy if I said that I would let you stay here until the nationals are over if you can find somebody who will let you stay with them?"

"Yeah, that would be great, but what about Kiyo? Did he agree to this?"

"Well, no, I have not spoken to him about it, but we would go to America without you, and after you are done here one of us will come back here to get you and bring you to America. How does that sound?"

"That sounds awesome. I just hope that he will agree to go through with it."

"I will talk to him about it, but first I'm going to go check on your sister."

"Alright, but I think I'm going to go to bed for the night."

"Alright then, good night."

"Good night mom, and thank you for considering letting me stay behind."

"You are welcome, now get some rest, you look like you could use it." After she said that, she turned off the light and left the room, closing the door behind her. After she left the room, Shinji thought to himself before drifting into a deep slumber /Things are hopefully going to start looking up for me./ and with that thought in mind, he drifted off into a deep slumber for the night.

After their mother left Shinji's room she when down the hall to Ayame's room to check up on her, but when she opened the door she noticed that Ayame was already asleep, so she decided not to bother her and went to go find Kiyo and talk to him about what she and Shinji had talked about.

**Authors Notes:** Well, that is the end of chapter 9. I know that it is not much, but I wanted to update sooner, rather than later. Just a heads up to anybody who is reading this, I have decided to shorten the chapters so I can update quicker. If you would prefer that I go back to the longer chapters just tell me. Well, anyway, leave a review if you have the time, or feel like it. I will update as soon as I possibly can.


	10. The News is Out

**Authors Notes:** Here is Chapter 10, so please read and enjoy.

Chapter 10:

The News is Out

It did not take long for her to find Kiyo because he was waiting for her in their bedroom. As soon as she entered the room, he looked at her with a questionable face.

"What's with that face?"

"Oh, nothing really. How are the kids doing?"

"Well, Shinji was not too happy, and I don't know about Ayame, she was asleep."

"I see."

"But there is something I want to ask you about."

"What would that be?"

"Well, it has to do with Shinji."

"Ok, what is it?"

"Well, I was talking to him, and thought about an idea that would make him a bit happier about the situation."

"Oh really, let's hear it then."

"Ok, well, when we were talking we came up with an idea that if he could find somebody that would be willing to let him stay with them, just until they finish off the national tournament, then he could stay here and one of us would come get him later."

"Well, I don't think that it is a bad idea. I think I can agree to that, but only if he can find somebody who is willing to let him stay with them."

"That's great, I'm glad that you agreed to that. He will be so happy when he hears this."

"I bet he will. Why don't you go tell him?"

"I would, but he already went to bed for the night."

"Oh, well then I guess he will get the information in the morning."

"Yes he will. Hey honey, it's getting late, so maybe we should get to bed too. I mean you have to get up early for work in the morning."

"You're right. Good night honey."

"Good night." She said back before giving him a good night kiss and turned off the light.

* * *

When Shinji got up in the morning the first thing he did was look at his clock to see what time it was. When he was that it was 7:15 in the morning, he realized that he was running late, and that if he didn't hurry, then he would be late for practice. So when he got out of bed, he grabbed his tennis uniform and ran for the bathroom. After he was done getting dressed and taking care of everything else needed in the bathroom, he ran downstairs to get some breakfast. When he got downstairs to the kitchen he was surprised to find that his mother was already up reading the paper, and drinking a cup of coffee. When she heard a noise she looked up to see what it was and saw Shinji coming into the kitchen.

"Oh, good morning Shinji, would you like something for breakfast?"

"Sure."

"What would you like then?"

"Waffles and sausage sound good."

"Ok, then I'll make them for you. By the way I have something to tell you."

"Ok… what is it?"

"Well, it is about what we were talking about last night. I spoke to Kiyo about it."

"Yeah, and what did he say?"

"He agreed to it, just as long as you find somebody to stay with."

"Yes. Things are beginning to look up for me."

"I'm glad to see that you are happy about it, although I figured that you would be."

"Why wouldn't I be happy about it? I mean I get to stay here and guide my team to the nationals."

"Well, honey, here are your waffles and sausage."

"Thanks mom. It looks good."

"You're welcome. By the way, why are you up so early, it's Saturday."

"Oh, we have practice today."

"Oh, well have fun."

"I will." Shinji said as he got up and rinsed his plate off and put it in the sink. As soon as he did that he put on his shoes and grabbed his tennis bag and walked out the door. While walking out the door he said "I'm leaving mom, I'll see you when I get home."

"Ok, bye Shinji." His mother said from the kitchen as he shut the door.

* * *

Shinji made it to practice just in time, despite the fact that he woke up later than he was supposed to. When he got there he went straight to the changing room and got changed as quickly as possible so that he did not get punished for being late. When he got to the court he was mobbed by one of his teammates.

"Hey Hamasaki, why are you late today? You got luck that the captain and coach Ryuzaki did not notice that you were late." said his teammate.

"Hey Shinji, what were you doing to run you late?" Ryu asked him as he came up to his friend.

"Huh, oh hey Ryu. I overslept because I was up all night last night."

"Really? Why were you up so late?"

"Oh… I'll tell you later. Now is not the time to talk about it."

"Ok…" Ryu said as he thought to himself /it must be important if he doesn't want to talk right now. I guess I'll have to wait and see./

Right after they got done with their short, little chat, they were called to line up, so they did just that.

"Alright, you all already know, the National Tournament is just around the corner. So I have got together with Yamaguchi here, and we have taken the liberty of creating a new training routine for all of you that you are to begin immediately during this practice and from now on. That is all. Now get to practicing." After she said that all the guys began to groan as they did as they were told. The first thing they were instructed to do was run 20 laps around the courts. While they were running their laps Toshiro and Ryu were watching Shinji trying to figure out what was on his mind. They began to talk to each other about it.

"Hey Toshiro, what do you think Shinji is thinking about?"

"I'm not too sure Ryu, but whatever it is, it seems to be bothering him."

"I know. I can see that too, but he would not tell me anything earlier when I asked. He said he would tell me later."

"Well, maybe I'll stick around so I can find out too. I mean it is beginning to bother me too, I mean seeing him like that. The only time I've ever seen him like that was when his sister was injured not too long ago."

"Oh god, I remember that. We were there at that moment, and you are right, he never gets like this unless something bad has come up."

"That is so true. We need to figure it out soon, or it might get worse."

"True… but for now just leave him alone and focus on running, we are falling behind." After noticing that they were falling behind, both boys ran harder to catch up with the rest of the group. After they were done running their laps, the regulars had to have matches amongst themselves. Shinji ended up with Ryu because he insisted that he wanted to play against him, but Shinji knew better than to believe that much. As they were playing Ryu was trying to ply information from Shinji again. Yet again, Shinji said that he would tell him later. After they finished off their match, which Shinji had won with a score of 6-3. They were the first to finish, so they decided to watch the rest of the matches. After all the matches had ended, practice was called to an end, and everyone was dismissed. IT was then that Ryu, Toshiro, and Ryu were walking to the changing room when somebody came up to them.

"Hey Shinji, somebody is here to see you." Said a voice from behind him.

"Hey Kimiko. Hey why is my sister here?"

"I don't know. She just showed up looking for you, so I brought her here."

"Ok… well we were heading for the changing room, so could you two wait here?"

"Ok." Both girls said at the same time. After the two girls agreed to wait, the three boys entered the changing room. When the boys were getting changed, Ryu and Toshiro kept asking Shinji what was on his mind. As they did that, Shinji started to get agitated with them and finally having enough decided to make them shut up.

"I'll tell you in a few, but first, I have to talk to Ryuzaki sensei about it. It is kind of important that she knows."

"Ok… we can wait for you."

"Fine, I have to come back and lock up the changing room anyway." After saying that he walked out of the changing room, leaving Toshiro and Ryu in there. After he left, he noticed that Ayame and Kimiko were still waiting there. So he decided to take Ayame with him to Ryuzaki sensei's office. So he caught her attention "Hey Ayame come on, I want you to come with me for a few moments." After he said that, she came and followed him. They kept of walking until they were in front of Ryuzaki sensei's office. Then Shinji knocked on the door and waited for a response.

"Come in." After he heard that, he entered the office, and Ayame followed behind him. After hearing that the person had entered, Ryuzaki looked up from what she was doing only to notice that it was Shinji that had entered.

"Oh, Hamasaki, what do you need, and who is that with you?"

"Oh, this is my sister Ayame, and I have come here because there is something I need to tell you."

"What is it that you need to talk to me about?"

"Well, you probably won't like this, but my family is moving to America in a couple weeks, which means that I will not be here for the Nationals." As he was saying this he was studying her face, and it showed exactly what he thought it would, unhappiness.

"Well, I can't say that I like the idea of losing my best player just before the Nationals, but I guess it can't be helped. This will be a big disappointment to the rest of the team." Ryuzaki said in a disappointed voice.

"But there is a way I could stay until the Nationals are over." When he said that, he caught both Ayame's and Ryuzaki's attention.

"Oh really, how is that?"

"Well, it was agreed that if I could find somebody who would be willing to let me stay with them until the Nationals are over, then I can stay, but I don't have anywhere to go just yet. I will ask around and see if I can find somewhere."

"I see, well good luck finding somewhere to stay. It would be nice to have you be able to stay with us until the very end."

"Yeah, it would. Oh and thanks for your time, but we have to get going now." Shinji said as he turned to go to the door.

"Good bye Shinji and Ayame." Ryuzaki said right before they walked out the door. After they walked out the door, and down the hall Ayame spoke for the first time since she had found her brother.

"Hey Shinji, why is it that you might be able to stay here, but I have to go? It just does not seem fair to me."

"Well Ayame it is because I'm older than you and mom said that I could. I'm sorry that you can't, and you are right, it is not fair. We can talk to mom about it when we get home."

"Ok." After walking for a bit, they ended up at the boy's dressing room again. Shinji noticed that Ryu, Toshiro, and Kimiko were standing outside of it having a conversation. So he told Ayame to wait with them and went into the changing room to grab his stuff that he left in there, and then came back out to lock it up. After he was done locking it up, he and the rest of the group began their walk home.

* * *

On the way home, Shinji was being harped on to tell what was on his mind. He didn't want to deal with the constant nagging anymore, so he finally decided to tell them.

"Ok, I'll tell you guys, just shut up already." After he said that everybody went quiet because they were surprised because that is out of character for Shinji to do something like that. "What is on my mind is something you guys are not going to want to hear."

"I'm not too sure about that Shinji, we asked you already to tell us, so go ahead. Whatever it is we can take it." Ryu said to him.

"Ok, well, my family is moving to America in a couple weeks." After he said that, he got a mixture of reactions, some he expected, and some he did not.

"Wait, but why are you leaving?" Kimiko asked him in a shocked voice.

"Well, we are leaving because Kiyo, my mom's husband got a job offering there, and this job offering would do us some good."

"Oh… Well, I'm going to miss you when you leave." Kimiko told him in a forlorn voice.

"Whoa, Shinji, if you leaving in a couple weeks, then what are we going to do about the Nationals? I don't think we can do it without you." Toshiro said to him.

"Well, I might have a solution to that."

"Really, what is it?" he was asked by all three of them at once.

"Well, as I told Ryuzaki sensei, it was agreed that I can stay here until the end of the Nationals if I can find somebody to stay with until then." Shinji said to the three.

"Then there is a bit of hope?" He was asked.

"Yeah, there is."

"Then we can ask our families about it, we might be able to make arrangements for you to stay with one of our families."

"Thanks guys that would be nice. But this is our road, so we have to go. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Shinji said as he and Ayame turned onto their street.

"No problem. Bye." They said as they continued on the road they were walking on.

**Authors Notes:** Well, that is the end of chapter ten, I hope you liked it. I'm sorry about the delay, but I was very busy with finals and other things. But since I'm out of class for Spring Break, I might be able to get a chapter or two up within that time, but we will have to see. Well, Next chapter you will find out whether Shinji gets to stay and other things possibly. Well I guess this is enough for now. Please feel free to leave a review. Good bye until next chapter.


	11. The Text

**Authors Notes: **I'm very sorry for the wait between updates. Between school and working on two stories updates have been slow, so please bear with me. Anyways, here is chapter 11 of The Reunited Souls.

Chapter 11:

The Text

Not long after Shinji and Ayame left the group and started heading down their road to get to their house Ayame finally realized what her brother had said, so she decided to ask him about it.

"Hey Shinji?"

"Yeah?"

"Is what you just said about possibly being able to stay here true?"

"Well, yes."

"I see. Then does that apply for me too?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't think so."

"But, why not?"

"I don't know. You will have to ask mom about it."

"I see." After hearing that Ayame was quiet for the rest of the way home. When they finally made it to their house both kids made it to the house and noticed that nobody was home because the door was locked and all the light were off, but the only thing that indicated nobody was home was that the lights were off because they always kept the door closed for some very strange reason. Since the door is always locked, Shinji instinctively started to take out his key to unlock the door to get in. As soon as he got the door open, he walked in and turned on the lights. As he was turning on the lights Ayame entered the house. When both of them were inside the door was shut and relocked and both kids removed their shoes and headed upstairs to do whatever they did for the normal routine. When Ayame made it to her room she turned on the light dropped her stuff on the floor and then went to her bed and picked up her favorite book and began to read it. She always read a book when she was upset about something because it usually helped to calm her down and take her mind off of what was bothering her, even if it was just for a little while. As Ayame was reading her book, Shinji walked by her room on his way to his own room and noticed her reading her book. He was going to stop and ask her something, but decided not to bother her and continued on his way. As he entered his room he turned on his light and shut the door behind him so he could change out of his tennis uniform and into something else. After he got changed she went over to the desk in his room and took out his homework to get that done. After about two hours, he was finished with his homework and decided to go check on Ayame and see if his mother or step father were home yet, so he got up from his chair and walked out of his room. When he walked by Ayame's room, he saw that she wasn't in her room. So he went downstairs to see if she was there. When he got downstairs he noticed that she was on the couch watching TV. He also noticed that neither his mother nor step father were around, so he decided to call his mother to see where she was and how long she will be. So he picked up the home phone since he left his in his room and called her. After three rings there was an answer on the other line.

"Hello?"

"Hey mom, it's me Shinji."

"Yeah, I know that. What do you need honey?"

"Nothing really, I was just wondering where you were."

"Oh. Well I'm out running some errands. I'll be back later tonight. Is that all you needed?"

Well, if you are going to be home later tonight, then what are we supposed to do about dinner?"

"Don't worry about that, I'll bring something home."

"Ok. Well that is all I wanted, so I'll let you go so you can get back to your errands."

"Ok honey. I'll see you when I get home."

"Ok, bye." After he said that Shinji hung up and put the phone back on the receiver. He then went back upstairs to put his school books and other school related items back in his bag. When he got everything gathered up and put into his bag he went back downstairs to watch some TV with Ayame, but before he left his room he grabbed his cell phone just in case one of his friends called him for a random reason. When he got downstairs he sat on the sofa next to Ayame. When he sat down next to her she diverted her attention away from the TV and to him for a second or two and then back to the TV. See that he did not recognize what was on the TV he decided to ask Ayame what exactly they were watching.

"Hey Ayame, what are you watching?"

"Umm, I'm not entirely sure myself… I just turned it to this channel."

"Oh, well, I guess we will find out."

"Yep. Hey, Shinji?"

"Yeah?"

"When will mom be home and what are we going to do about dinner? I'm starting to get hungry."

"I don't know when she will be coming home and I don't know what will be for dinner because mom is supposed to be bringing something home for dinner. If you are hungry go find yourself something to eat."

Ok was all Ayame managed to say to her brother as she got up and went to the kitchen to find something to eat. When she got to the kitchen and looked for a bit she found some popcorn in the cabinet and decided she wanted some. So she decided to pull it out and put it into the microwave for as long as the package said to put it in for. When it was done she poured it into a bowl and took it out to the living room and sat back down on the sofa next to Shinji. Shinji looked over at her and saw that she made some popcorn and thought that maybe they should watch a movie.

"Hey Ayame since you made some popcorn why don't we watch a movie?"

"Sure. What movie did you have in mind?"

"Hmm, how does Juno sound?"

"Sure, I think that sounds good." With both of them in agreement Shinji put the DVD into the DVD player and went back to the sofa and sat down. Just like most other movies, the movie began by showing previews for other movies. After seeing two of those previews Shinji got annoyed with them and decided to skip straight to the movie. After the actual movie started both Ayame and Shinji got comfortable and Ayame sat the bowl in between the two so that both of them could get some when they wanted it. About three quarters of the way through the movies Shinji went to grab some more popcorn only to find that there was none left but decided not to do anything about it, instead he looked over at Ayame and saw that she was sound asleep on the couch next to him, so he paused the movie and went over to the linen closet to get a blanket to put over her. After he draped the blanket over her he headed upstairs to the bathroom to take care of some personal business. When he got back downstairs, he sat back in his seat and turned the movie back on. When the movie finally ended Shinji got up and took out the DVD and put it back into its case. He then picked up the popcorn dish and took it out to the kitchen and washed it and put it back where it was supposed to go. When he was about to go out of the kitchen he stopped by the refrigerator to grab a drink out of it. After making his selection he closed the refrigerator and went upstairs to his room to find something to do. When he got to his room he turned on the light and when straight to his computer. As soon as he turned it on he went onto the internet to see if he could find anything worth his while to look at. After about thirty minutes of searching the web, he heard somebody entering the house. Assuming that it was his mother, he decided not to even move from his seat. As Mrs. Hamasaki entered the house, she noticed that the TV was off and nobody was around except a sleeping Ayame. So she decided to call out to Shinji to see where he was and what he was doing.

"Hey Shinji, I'm home and I have dinner, so please get ready and come to the kitchen."

After hearing his mother say that he gave a response "Ok, I'll be down in a couple minutes."

"Ok."

Shinji then logged of the computer and got out of his seat and went to the bathroom to wash his hands and then headed down to the kitchen. On the way to the kitchen he saw his mother waking up Ayame and telling her to get ready for dinner. So Ayame got up and headed upstairs to the bathroom to wash up. When Shinji passed the clock in the living room at glanced at to get the time and saw that it was already 8:30 at night. He then took his seat at the table and waited for both his mother and Ayame to sit down. A couple minutes later Ayame was seated and was looking around with a tired expression. When she was looking around, she saw the clock and saw that it was 8:30 and then said "Mom, it is 8:30. Isn't it a little late for dinner now? If you were going to be this late you could have told us to fix something for ourselves for dinner."

After hearing her daughter's question she gave her an answer. "I'm sorry, but I was not expecting to take this long. If I had known that I would take this long, then I would have done that. Anyway I have dinner so let's just eat it, ok."

"Fine with me, I'm just glad I can finally eat because I'm hungry." After she said that, her mom put her food in front of her and she started to devour it. As she ate she failed to notice that her mother and brother were watching her. /Geez, she is eating like she has not eaten in days…/ Shinji thought to himself. Their mother just stared with a shocked expression. After everybody was done with dinner they went to do their own thing. Ayame decided to go brush her teeth and go to bed. Shinji went back to his room and laid down on his bed and started to read a random book from his bookshelf. After a couple hours of reading, Shinji began to feel tired, so he put the book on his nightstand and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. When he got back to his room he changed into his pajamas and laid down in his bed. Right when he was about to turn off the lamp on his nightstand his cell phone went off indicating that he had a text message. He then picked up the phone to read the text. When he opened the phone he saw the text and it read: I have something I need to tell you, so please meet me at the park at 10:00 in the morning. After reading the text, he shut the phone, turned off the lamp, and laid down to go to sleep for the night.

**Authors Notes: **Well, that is the end of chapter 11. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Again, I'm sorry for the late update. I've been busy with classes and I kind of lost interest in writing this story for a while, but now I have found interest in it again. With it being summer I should be able to update more often, so that is something to look forward to. Anyways please leave a review if you want to. Well, that is it for now. Goodbye until next time.

.


	12. A Confrontation with Great News

**Authors Notes:** Here is chapter 12 of The Reunited Souls. Please read and enjoy.

Chapter 12:

A Confrontation with Great News

When Shinji woke up in the morning it was nine in the morning. At first he didn't think anything of the text he had received the previous night, that is until thought about calling up Toshiro and the others to hang out for a bit considering they did not have class or practice that day. But just he thought about that, he remembered that he was supposed to meet Toshiro in the park at ten that morning. So he automatically got out of his bed and went to his dresser to retrieve his clothes that he was going to wear that day and ran for the bathroom to shower and take care of other needs that pertained to the bathroom. After he got done in the shower, he ran downstairs two at a time and went to the kitchen to grab something for breakfast that he can eat while walking to the park. So he grabbed an apple and a doughnut and walked to the living room door and put on his shoes he opened the door and walked out. But before he could get out the door and shut it behind him, he heard somebody call out to him, so he stopped and turned around already knowing who it was that called him.

"Shinji, where are you going?"

"I'm just going to the park to meet up with Toshiro. He said he wanted to talk to about something."

"Oh, ok honey. I just wanted to know where you were going in such a rush."

"Well, now you know. I will be back later."

"Ok. Have fun."

"Ok mom." Shinji said as he walked out the door and shutting it behind him. After he shut the door, he started to walk down the road that lead to the park where he was supposed to be meeting Toshiro. On the way there, he noticed how everything was so quiet and calm early in the morning. The only thing that could be heard were birds chirping and the occasional car that passed by, but other than that, it was really peaceful and Shinji really loved the peacefulness that surrounded him. Shinji got so absorbed in his surroundings that he forgot the initial reason that he was outside to begin with. After a few minutes of taking in his surrounding, it donned on him that he was supposed to be at the park to meet up with Toshiro. He then looked at his watch and saw that if he didn't hurry that he would be late, so he picked up his pace and continued on his way. By the time he got to the park, he was five minutes late. When he enter the park he saw that Toshiro was already there waiting for him at a bench. When he got up to the bench he took his seat.

"Hey Toshiro, I'm sorry that I'm late. I got a bit distracted…"

"It's ok. I don't mind. Besides, I just got here myself."

"Oh, that's a relief. I thought I kept you waiting…"

"Nope, I was running late myself and was hoping that I would not keep you waiting."

"Nope. Anyways, what is it that you needed to talk to me about?"

"Oh, I've got some good news for you."

"Really? Well, let's hear it."

"Well, I remember that you told us that your family is moving at the end of next week, but that you could stay long enough to complete the Nationals if you could find somebody to stay with for that amount of time. So I asked my parents about it and explained the situation, and they agreed to let you stay with us."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes I am."

"That is great. But where am I supposed to be sleeping? I know that your family is quite big…"

"Oh, you will be sharing my room with me."

"I'm alright with that."

"Well, now that all of that is cleared up. How about we have a match since we are already here."

"I can't because I don't have my equipment with me. I was in a hurry and forgot to grab it."

"Oh, that's ok. It was just a suggestion. Why don't we leave here and go do something. We can get the group together."

"Ok, I'm up for that." After everything was said and done, the two boys got up and left the park to collect their friends and go hang out.

It was now 1 in the afternoon and Ayame was beginning to get very bored and wanted to play with somebody, so she decided to get up grab her tennis bag and headed downstairs. She decided that she wanted to spend as much time as possible before she leaves. On her way out the door she had to at least let her mom know that she was leaving.

"Hey mom, I'm leaving."

"Ok honey, but where to?"

"I'm going to hang out with my friends for a while."

"Oh, ok. Have fun."

"I will." After saying that Ayame walked out the door. After she walked out the door, she went directly over to Fuji's house because he was her best friend. After she arrived there she knocked on the door and waited for somebody to answer the door. After a minute or two of waiting, somebody opened the door. When the person saw who was on the other side and smiled at her before they spoke a single word to her.

"Oh, Ayame, it's nice to see you. But I'm pretty sure you are here to see Syuusuke, but he is not here at the moment."

"Oh, then can you tell me where he is?"

"Oh, he actually went to the park with a couple of you teammates."

"Thank you Yumiko san."

"You're welcome Ayame." After Ayame heard that she turned and started walk off in search of her friends in the park.

Shinji and Toshiro had just assembled their group of friends and they were trying to figure out what to do since none of them had any ideas at the moment. That was until Saya came up with the idea of going to the movies. After hearing that suggestion, everybody else agreed with her and they then started off for the closest theater. By the time they got to the theater it was 2:30 and the movies that they had wanted to see had already ended and the next viewings were not until 5:30 or later. They decided that they did not want to wait that long so they had to decide on something else to do. After about five minutes of walking they caught a glance at the ocean, and that is when it hit them that they could enjoy some time at the beach. But then it was brought up that none of them had any swimwear on them. Then Shinji came up with a fine idea.

"Hey guys, I know we don't actually have any swimwear, but there is a shopping center right there, if you want we can stop in there and get something, or we can just wear what we have on. There are no rules against it. Either way it doesn't matter much to me."

"Well, I'm not too fond of wearing this to the beach, so I'm going to the shop, if you guys like you can go on ahead and I'll catch up later." Saya said as she turned toward the store.

"Hey, wait up Saya, I'm coming with you." Kimiko said as she started after the said girl. As the girls left the group, the guys stood there debating on whether they should follow, or go on ahead. In the end, they decided to go on and follow the girls into the store because none of them really felt like wearing what they had on. As they entered the shopping center they had to look for the area that contained the swimming stuff. After looking for a few minutes, they found what they were looking for and went over to the area. When they got to the area they saw that there was a nice selection to choose from and started to look through everything. After about five minutes of searching, they guys were done and were waiting on the girls to finish. After waiting another fifteen minutes, the girls finally finished with their selecting and paid for them. After everything was paid for they exited the store and headed back to the beach and went to the bathrooms to change. When everybody came out they all went toward the water for some beach fun.

After Ayame left the Fuji residence, she went directly to the park. She couldn't help thinking to herself that she should have gone there to begin with. When she got to the park she automatically where to go because she could hear her friends from not too far from where she was. So, she automatically went towards the voices of her friends. When she finally got to where they were she was not surprised to find herself at the tennis courts. Not that it mattered to her because she was fully prepared to play. So she started to approach the rest of the group.

"Hey guys." She said as she approached them. After she said that the mass majority of the group turned their heads to see who had called them. After turning around and noticing who it was the whole group got smiles on their faces and she got many hellos back.

"Hey Ayame, I'm glad that you could come. How would you like to join us?" Mika, one of her best friends asked.

"That sounds awesome. Actually, that's why I came here."

"Really, then play a match with me. I wanted to play a match, but as you can see there is nobody available."

"Ok." Ayame said as she put her bag down and grabbed her pale pink racket out of it. As she stood back up she looked at who all was there and noticed that somebody who was supposed to be there was not there.

"What's wrong? You look like you are looking for something or someone." Mika asked after noticing that Ayame was looking around.

"Hey, where is Fuji? His sister told me that he was here with you guys."

"Oh, he is here, he had to use the bathroom."

"Oh, ok." Ayame said as she started to walk toward an open court.

"Why did you ask that anyway?" Mika asked while following Ayame to the court.

"I just needed to tell him something, but it can wait till later."

"Ok." Mika said.

"So who is serving first?"

"You can go ahead and serve."

"Ok." Ayame said as she served the ball that Mika was easily able to return. The two girls instantly went into an intense rally, but after awhile, Ayame was able to get the point.

"Hey Mika I'm glad to see that you have gotten better."

"Thanks for noticing. I've been practicing quite a bit lately."

"I'm glad to hear that, but you are going to have do better than what you shown me in order to beat me."

"Oh, I know that, but I'm not finished yet."

"I figured you would say that. So give everything you've got."

"Alright." Mika said while serving. Ayame instantly picked up on the course of the ball and was ready to hit it. She swung her racket, only to realize that the ball had already hit the ground. She then looked up at Mika and saw Mika was wearing the biggest smirk ever on her face. Just looking at that smirk was enough to fire her up, so she got back into position to receive the next serve. She felt for sure that she would be able to return it now that she had seen it once, but yet again, she was not able to return the ball, costing her a game. So now the score was 5-2 with everything in her favor. She was beginning to feel a bit tired and it was getting very hard to play because of that, so she wanted to take as little time as possible to finish the match. She then grabbed the ball and attempted to serve, but as she did she began to feel very dizzy and the ball dropped to the ground along with her racket as she fell to her knees holding her head.

Fuji was on his way back to the tennis courts after he was done in the bathroom. When he got there, he noticed that Ayame had shown up and that she was playing a match against Mika, so he just decided to sit down on the bench and watch the two girls play. He watched as the two girls played a match that consisted of some very long rallies. But despite the extremely long rallies, the thought that it was a good match and what made it better is that the girls were enjoying it. But about halfway through the match he began to notice that Ayame was beginning to move slower than normal, her hits were a lot weaker than normal, and she began to breathe harder than usual as well. After he noticed all of that he began to wonder if he should step in and stop the match, but before he could even step in, Ayame had dropped everything and collapsed. He automatically got up from where he was sitting and ran to her side to assist her if needed. As he got to her Mika had also made her way over to Ayame.

"Ayame, are you ok?" Fuji asked with a lot of concern in his voice.

"I don't know, I feel dizzy…"

"Ok, let's get you over to the bench." Fuji said as he helped her to her feet and over to the bench. When they got to the bench, Fuji helped her to get seated. He then looked through his bag for one of the bottles of water that he had brought with him and gave it to Ayame. "Drink that, it might help you out a bit."

"Thank you." Ayame said while accepting the bottle of water.

"I'll be back in a minute, ok."

"Ok." After she said Fuji went over to the rest of the group. When he got to the rest of the group they all looked at him with concern on their faces.

"How is she? Is she ok?" Mika asked.

"I think so, but I think it would be better if she went home, so I'll take home."

"Ok, we will see you two later."

"Ok, bye guys." Fuji said as he went back over to Ayame. When he got back to her he noticed that she looked kind of pale. Seeing her that way made him even more concerned about her.

"You don't look too well, are you ok?"

"To be truthful, I'm not feeling well. I think I should be going home."

"You're right. I'll take you home."

"Ok." Ayame said as she picked up her bag and waited on Fuji to get his bag and join her. As soon as he was ready, they started on their way toward Ayame's house. While they were walking, Fuji kept a constant watch over Ayame, and he was grateful when she began to look a bit better. When Ayame and Fuji were about half way to her house, Ayame remembered that there was something that she needed to tell Fuji.

Umm, Fuji, there is something I have to tell you." Ayame said in a sad tone.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, I'm sorry to say this, but my family is moving to America next week."

**Author's Notes:** Well, that is the end of chapter 12 of The Reunited Souls. I hope you enjoyed reading it. I plan on having the next chapter up by the end of next week if everything works out well. Leave a review if you have something that you want to say about The Reunited Souls. Well, anyways goodbye until next time.


	13. Tears, Agony, and Sorrow

**Authors Notes:** I know I said that I would have this up by the end of last week, but I was not able to do so, and I'm very sorry for that. Anyways, here is chapter 13 of the Reunited Souls.

Chapter 13:

Tears, Agony, and Sorrow

"Fuji, there is something I need to tell you." Ayame said in a sad voice.

"What is it?" Fuji asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Well, my family is moving to America at the end of next week…"

"What? But why?"

"Well, I was told that we are moving because of a job opportunity that Kiyo, my stepfather was offered. He accepted it without even talking to me or my brother about it. To make things worse, my mom even agreed with him when he said we should move because it will be better for us." Ayame said in a now furious tone.

"Well, that does not seem very right to do to you or your brother."

"It isn't. This is so unfair…" Ayame said before she started to cry tears of agony. After seeing his friend start to crumble right in front him, he automatically put his arms around her to embrace her while she continued to cry into his shoulder. They stayed like that until she finally calmed down and stopped crying.

"Do you feel better now?" Fuji asked when Ayame had stopped crying.

"Somewhat. I still don't want to leave here, I mean all of my friends are here and I don't want to lose them."

"I know, I don't want you to leave either, but there is nothing we can do about it now."

"I know, I just wish it did not have to be this way."

"I know, but I think we should probably get moving because it is starting to get late."

"Ok." Ayame said as they began walking again. Everything was silent when they continued their walk back to their respective homes. Neither of the two had spoken a word because they were about things they were currently on their minds. But before they realized it, they were already at Ayame's house. When Ayame noticed that she was in front of her house she walked up to it and was about to open it, as she was about to go inside, she turned around and looked at Fuji who was still standing there waiting to make sure she got inside safely and spoke the first words for a long while.

"Goodnight Fuji, and thanks for walking me home."

"No problem. Goodnight Ayame." Fuji said as turned around to take his leave. After he left she went inside her house for the night.

After getting home Ayame went inside and went straight to her room not telling anybody that she was home. When she got to her room she shut the door and flopped down on her bed and began thinking about all the good things that have happened to her during her life up until now. When her thoughts hit the things that had to do with Fuji she began to cry uncontrollably for reasons unknown to her. It was when she started crying that she heard a knock on her door. When she did not give a response, the door opened revealing her mother with a very concerned face.

"Ayame, what's the matter?" Her mother asked while walking over to her daughter.

"I was thinking about some things, and all of a sudden I started crying out of nowhere."

"What were you thinking about?" Her mother asked, now sitting on Ayame's bed.

"I was thinking about a lot of things, especially the good things that have happened to me in my life, but when I started to think about Fuji, I just started crying."

"You two are very close, so I can see why that happened."

"Mama, I don't want to leave. I like my life here. Ayame said as she began to cry even harder than she was before.

"I know, neither does your brother, but the plans have already been made and there is nothing more I can do about it." Her mother said while trying to comfort her daughter. Eventually, Ayame ended crying herself to sleep, so her mother tucked her in, turned off the light, and left her alone for the night.

When Fuji got home he did the same thing as Ayame, and that was and that was go straight upstairs to his room. When was going down the hall to get to his room, he passed by his sister as was leaving her room. As they passed each other they exchanged glances before he went into his room. When he entered his room he flopped onto bed and thought about what Ayame had told him earlier that day. After a bit of time he was disturbed by somebody knocking on his door. After giving consent to enter the door was opened revealing Yumiko. As she entered the room she saw that something was really bothering her brother, so she decided that it would be best to talk to him and see what is bothering him.

"Syuusuke, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Fuji lied.

"Don't say that, I can tell that something is bothering you, so can you please tell me?"

"No, I'd rather not talk about it right now."

"But I can't help if you don't tell me."

"Alright, fine. I just found out that Ayame and her family are moving to America at the end of next week."

"Oh, who told you that?"

"Ayame herself, and she was so upset about it. I don't want her to leave, she is my best friend…" Sensing that her brother was very upset about the situation, she held him in an embrace while saying things to try to make him feel better.

"I know you don't want her to leave, but you know, it's been said being apart can make bonds stronger."

"Really?"

"Yes, it is true. I know it will be hard, but you will learn how to go on without her." After saying that, Yumiko got up and went over to the door and was about to leave the room when she heard her brother say something else.

"Thank you nii-san." Fuji said just before her drifted off to sleep.

**Authors Notes: **Well, that is the end of chapter 13 of the Reunited Souls. Sorry, if I made Fuji out of character, I promise I will try to fix that in the later chapters, but also he is just a kid in these chapters, so bear with me for now. Anyways, the next chapter should be the whole sad separation chapter, or at least I hope it will be, with how I do things, it's hard to tell. Well, anyways, leave a review if you wish to, I would appreciate some feedback. I think it's about time I stop rambling and end this for now. Goodbye until next chapter.


	14. Separation and Painful Goodbyes

**Authors Notes: **Here is chapter 14 of the Reunited Souls.

Chapter 14:

Separation and Painful Goodbyes

It's been a week since Ayame had told Fuji having to move. Within the week, Ayame and Fuji spent every available moment together considering that the following morning would be the last time they would be able to see each other in a very long time, possibly even the rest of their lives. So they decided that spending the entire day together would be a good idea.

"Hey Fuji, what do you think we should do today?"

"I'm not sure Ayame, what is it that you would like to do?"

"I don't know, and to be truthful, I don't really care as long as I can spend the day with you."

"Well, if that is the case, then there is something that I would like to show you that I think you might like."

"Oh, then why don't you show me?"

"Alright, come with me."

"Alright." Ayame said as she followed behind him to their destination. As they were walking, she began to realize where they were going, but couldn't figure out what was so special about it. "Hey, Fuji, why are we heading for the park? What is so special about the park?"

"You'll see. It's something that I found a while ago, but never told anybody about it. You will be the first person that I've ever shown."

"Cool, I just hope that it's as great as you say it is."

"Oh, it is. I'm sure that you will love it." Soon he said that, Fuji and Ayame arrived at their destination. "We are here." Fuji said as he stood looking at the sight before him as he waited for Ayame to catch up to him. When she finally caught up what she saw astounded her. The sight of the beautiful pond that was surrounded by a lush field of grass that had patches of bright, colorful flower. To her it looked like a giant flower garden. She was so into the sight that she did not even notice that her companion was looking right at her. The look that was on her face was what he expected to see, and yet, it made him smile. After some time of silence and looking upon the beautiful view in front of them, Fuji decided to break the silence.

""Hey, Ayame, what do you think?"

"Oh, Fuji, it's beautiful. How did you find this place?"

"I found it when I was taking a walk one day, I just happened to come across it."

"Well, I'm glad that you showed me this place." Ayame said as she walked further into the field to get a better view of the pond. Fuji noticed that and decided to follow her. As Ayame sat down in the grass next to the pond, she motioned for Fuji to join her, so he did. After he sat next to her she turned to gaze at the pond and said "You know what, I bet this place is even more beautiful in the night."

"I bet you are right." After that, they sat there enjoying each other's company until it became dark and they decided that it was time to go back to their homes.

It was now the most devastating morning for Ayame, who was helping her mother and step father put the last bit of into their car before she called to their dog to get her into the car. She was about to get into the car when she though she heard somebody yell her name and telling her to wait, so she looked around and did not see anybody, so she got into the car and was about to shut the door when she heard it again, this time she saw Fuji standing on the sidewalk in front of her house shouting out her name trying to get her attention. When she noticed him there, she got out of the car and went over to him.

"Fuji, what are you doing here?"

"Why do you think I'm here? I wanted to say a final goodbye before you leave for good."

"Oh, well, I guess this is goodbye." Ayame said as she was about to walk away, only to be stopped when Fuji grabbed her arm.

"There is another reason I came by."

"Oh and why is that?" Ayame asked as she turned around to look at her best friend.

"I wanted to give you this." Fuji said as he pulled a picture out of his pocket and handed it to Ayame.

"Thanks Fuji, but why are you giving this to me?"

"I'm giving it to you as a going away gift, also so you will never forget about me."

"I'm not going to forget about you because you were my first and by far, my best friend. You were able to change me in way I never thought possible and because of that, I managed to make more friends." Ayame said as she smiled

"Well, I think that you should get going. I think your parents are getting tired of waiting. Good luck in America, I know that you will be fine there. Goodbye Ayame." Fuji said as he pulled her into a hug for a brief moment and let her go again.

"Goodbye Fuji, I will miss you." Ayame said as she turned around and went back to the car and got in. After she shut the door, the car started to drive out of the driveway. As the car passed Fuji one last time Ayame rolled down the window and shouted "Fuji, I swear that I will never forget you, and that we will meet again sometime."

Fuji smiled and shouted back at her "I will hold you to that Ayame." After hearing that Ayame rolled the window back up and sat back in her seat as she started the long journey to a new life, leaving her old one behind.

**Authors Notes:** Well, that is the end of chapter 14 of the Reunited Souls. I'm sorry that it is a little on the short side. I will try to make the next chapter longer, but I can't make any promises that it will happen. I'm not too sure how to write the next chapter and the following ones. I have a thought mind. I was thinking that I could write about how life goes for Ayame and Fuji while they are apart. If you have any better suggestions I would love to hear them. I might be able to use them, so please tell me what you think. Anyways, I will try to update sometime soon.


	15. Times of Hardships

**Author's Notes:** Here is chapter 15 of The Reunited Souls.

Chapter 15:

Times of Hardships

It has been five years since Ayame moved to America and she has been doing everything possible to make it as great as she can. At the moment Ayame was enjoy some leisure time with two of her tennis teammates at the mall. She was currently looking through a rack of clothes to see if there was anything that interested her that was until her friends distracted her.

"Hey Ayame, aren't you excited?" Her friend Molly asked in a very excided voice.

"Excited about what?"

"Don't tell me you have forgotten about the prefectural tournament? It starts in two days." Her other friend Nikki said.

"Oh yeah, I guess I let it slip my mind…"

"Geez Ayame, how could you forget?"

"I'm sorry, but times have been rough for me lately."

"Is there something going on at home?" Molly asked with concern in her voice.

"Yes, a whole load of stuff. Let's just say that my mom and stepfather have been fighting lately."

"Oh, that is bad. Do you have any idea why?"

"No, but I do know that it has been getting progressively worse every day. It got so bad last night that my mom left home and did not come back until this morning."

"We feel bad for you Ayame. It makes us glad that we live with our mom. Our parents fought all the time too, but it never got that bad."

"Then you two are lucky." Ayame said as her cell phone began to ring. After looking at who it was Ayame decided it would be better to answer it.

"What do you need mom?"

"Ayame, I need you to come home immediately."

"Why? Is there something wrong?"

Only the usual, please just come home."

"Ok, I'll be home soon."

"Thanks Ayame, I'll see you when you get back."

"Ok, bye." Ayame said as she closed her phone and put it back in her pocket. After she did that she looked at her two friends and said "Sorry you two, but my mom is telling me that I need to come home immediately, evidently something came up and she needs me, so I have to leave now."

"Ok." Both girls said at the same time. After hearing her friends say that Ayame turned to take her leave, thus leaving the other two girls to continue their shopping.

xxxx

When Ayame got home, she automatically opened the door to her house and went inside. When she got inside she wasn't surprised that the first thing she heard was her mom and stepfather fighting with each other. What did surprise her was when her younger sister, Yukki came running up to while crying. When Yukki got to Ayame she clung to her as if her life depended on it and said "Ayame nii chan, your home."

"What's wrong?" Ayame asked as she picked up her sister.

"Mommy and daddy have been fighting again."

"I know. Can you tell me what they are fighting about this time?"

"I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with us."

"With us?"

"Yes. I heard mommy say something about us, but I don't understand what they were talking about."

"Alright, I think I should go talk to mom about this and see what she has to say. I want you to go upstairs and go play for a bit. Can you do that?"

"Ok, but can you play with me later?"

"Yes, I will play with you later, now go on upstairs." Ayame said as she put her sister down.

"Ok." Yukki said as she went upstairs to go play.

/Now to go find mom. I really need to find out what is causing all of this fighting./ Ayame thought to herself as she when to where she heard the shouting coming from. When she found the place where they were fighting, Ayame realized that it was the kitchen and decided to go to the refrigerator to get something to drink. After pulling out a Coke, she decided to try and get the attention of her parental figures. After trying some many ways to get their attention with no avail, she had no choice but to raise her voice to get their attention. "WOULD YOU TWO STOP FIGHTING ALREADY?" After she said that both of the adults shut up and looked at the teenage girl in front of them. After they stopped fight with each other, Ayame took the chance to get a few words in. "Mom, can I please talk to you for a bit?"

"Ok honey. What do you want to talk about?"

"Actually, I want to talk to you alone without others."

"Ok honey. Kiyo, can you please leave us alone for awhile?"

"Fine, I've have some things I need to do anyway." Kiyo said as he picked up his keys and walked out the door going to his car.

"Ok, honey, he is gone, so what is it you wanted to talk about?"

"Well, it has to do with all of the fighting that you two have been doing lately. I want to know what it is all about."

"Oh, well, if you really want to know, it is mainly about you girls. It did involve Shinji until he got married and moved back to Japan with Keiko chan."

"Oh, what about us girls?"

"Well, we are fighting about what is truly better for you two."

"I just don't think this type of lie is what you need. I mean we are constantly moving around because of his job. I just don't think that is good for you to."

"Oh, I see. Well, I for one would love it if we didn't have to move so much, but I think that Yukki is too young to even understand what is really going on."

"I think you might be right about that one Ayame."

"If you guys are fighting about that then why don't you put your foot down and do something about it?"

"Ayame, don't you think that I've been trying to think of something to do about it, but it just isn't that easy."

"I know, but do you want to know what I think?"

"Sure, tell me what you think."

"Well, I think that we should leave him and go back to Japan. To be truthful, I have never liked him much, even when I first met him back when I was six years old."

"I know you don't like him. I've noticed that neither you nor Shinji like him very much."

"If you noticed then why did you stay with him?"

"Well, I'm not too sure why I stayed with him. Now I see that it was not the best idea."

"Does that mean that you plan on leaving him and going back to Japan?"

"Yes, we will, as soon as I can find a way to do so, but until then we will have to deal with him."

"Alright, but I hope we can leave here soon because I don't like this place. Even though I have been going to the same school for five years now, I only have a few friends."

"I know things are very tough for you, but look at it this way, at least you have you tennis friends. Both the guys and girls teams seem to like you."

"Yeah, I know, but still."

"I know that you aren't accepted here by very many people, but you will just have to deal with it until we can get out of here. Can you do that?"

"Do I really have a choice?"

"No, I guess not. Well, I have homework that I need to work on, and I'm sure that you are about to start on dinner, so I'll go on upstairs."

"Ok honey. I'll call you when dinner is done."

"Ok." Ayame said as she left the kitchen and went upstairs to her room. When Ayame got to her room she went to her desk and pulled out her math book and got to working on her math homework. As she was working on her math work she heard a quiet knock on her door. She already knew who it was and without even thinking twice she acknowledged the person knocking on her door. "You can come in Yukki." After she said that, Yukki opened the door and came in shutting the door behind her.

"Ayame nii chan, you said that you would play with me."

"I know I did. Just let me finish the last little bit of my homework then I will play with you. Is that ok?"

"Yes, can I wait in here until you finish?"

"Sure, I don't mind." With that being said, Yukki sat down on Ayame's bed and waited on her sister finish the rest of her homework. After about five minutes of waiting Yukki began to get a little impatient and decided to ask her sister if she was done yet.

"Nii chan, are you almost done yet?"

"Yes, just let me finish this last problem and I'll be done, so give me a few seconds." After she finished her last question she put down her pencil and closed her book and turned to her sister. "So, what is it that you wanted to play?"

"I wanted you to play dolls with me."

"Ok, Ok." Ayame said as she followed her sister out of her room while turning off the light on her way out. While walking down the hallway to Yukki's room Ayame was thinking to herself /what exactly have I gotten myself into? I really don't want to play dolls, but if I don't she will start crying. I guess I have no choice. This is what I get for agreeing to play with my four old sister./ Ayame was pulled from her thoughts when she heard her sister's voice.

"Nii chan, why are you playing?"

"Huh, oh, I was just thinking about something."

"Ok, well since you aren't thinking about it anymore play with me."

"Ok." After finally agreeing for the final time Ayame took the doll that her sister gave her to play with and played dolls with her sister. About fifteen minutes later, their mom came up the stairs to tell them dinner was done. When she got to the room she was surprised to find both of her daughters in there playing together. She didn't really want to disturb them, but she knew that she had to, so she decided to get their attention by calling their names.

"Ayame, Yukki, dinner is done, so go to the bathroom and get washed up for dinner."

"Ok." Both girls said together as they got up and went to the bathroom to wash up for dinner. After they were done, they went downstairs to kitchen to eat dinner. During dinner they carried a nice conversation between the three of them. After they finished their dinner, the table was cleared, and while Ayame took care of the dishes and putting the leftovers away, her mother went upstairs with Yukki to get her bathed and ready for bed. After Ayame was done in the kitchen, she went upstairs to take a shower and get ready for bed herself. She didn't know why but she felt exhausted for some reason. When she was done in the shower she directly to her room, crawled into her bed, and let sleep take over her.

**Author's Notes:** Well, that is the end of chapter 15 of The Reunited Souls. I'm surprised that I got this done so quickly. I got an idea that I thought would go well with the story plot and decided to put it in. I hope you enjoyed it because I actually enjoyed writing it. Anyways, leave a review if you want, even if you don't I hope you continue to read The Reunited Souls. I hope to update soon, hopefully within the next few days. Since I'm on break from my classes until the 22nd I hope to get as many updates as possible in. Well, anyways, please watch out for the next update.


	16. Finally, the Prefectural Tournament Begi

**Author's Notes: **Here is Chapter 16 of The Reunited Souls. Just to say a couple things, the names of the schools in this chapter I made up, but if they actually exist, I don't own them… also, there will be quite a few OCs in this chapter, basically just enough to create the teams.

Chapter 16:

Finally, the Prefectural Tournament Begins

BEEP BEEP BEEP was the first thing that Ayame heard that morning. After Ayame opened her eyes, she reached over to her nightstand and searched for the item that was making that obnoxious sound. When her hand finally landed on her alarm clock she turned it off, then she rolled over and went back to sleep. When she finally decided to get up, she looked at the time while thinking to herself /We were supposed to meet up at 9:00 and it is now 8:55. CRAP, I'M GOING TO BE LATE!/ After seeing the time she took off out of her room like a bat out of hell and sprinted to the bathroom to take care of her morning necessities, and that included changing into her tennis uniform. After she got out of the bathroom dressed in her uniform which consisted of black tennis dress with a white stripe that across the chest. The dress hugged her figure nicely. After she made sure everything was the ways it was supposed to be, she raced down the stairs to the kitchen where her mother was sitting at the table sipping some tea. After seeing her daughter enter the kitchen she smiled and greeted her.

"Well good morning Ayame, hold on and I'll get you your breakfast." She then got out of the chair she was sitting in and when to retrieve the food that she had made for breakfast.

"Mom, why did you make sure I was up?"

"I'm sorry, but I didn't know you needed to be up."

"This is great, now I'm running late for the Prefectural Tournament. If I don't make it in time, we will be disqualified."

"I'm sorry, if I had known I would have woken you up. Well, here is your breakfast."

"Thanks." Ayame said as she ate her breakfast so fast you would think that she had not eaten anything in days. After she finished her breakfast, she got up from the table put her dishes in the sink and made a mad dash for the door. She put on her shoes, grabbed her tennis bag, and ran out the door. When she got out of her house she ran as fast as her legs would let her run. As she was running, she looked at her watch to see what time it was and she saw that it was already 9:25, she was already almost a half hour late, and if she didn't get there by ten, then they would be disqualified. When she saw the entrance to the tennis park where the tournament was being held she thought to herself /Finally, I've made it with 10 minutes to spare./ When she made it inside, she instantly saw her team, and they did not look pleased at all. When she walked up to her team she instantly got scolded by both her captain and coach.

"You are late." They both said in unison.

"I know, and I'm very sorry about it. It won't happen again."

"It better not. We will discuss you punishment for being late later, but for now we need to focus on getting registered and getting to our court on time." With that being said, everybody started on their way to the registration table to get registered. When they got up to the table, their captain handed in the playing order for their upcoming matches. After the handed in their playing order, they headed to their designated court to start the match. When they made it to the court they instantly heard voices from the girls from the other team.

"Oh, look who finally decided to show up."

"We thought that you were going to chicken out, oh well, this makes things even more fun."

"So what if they did show up, we are still going to have an easy win." That was the final straw for Ayame, and she snapped.

"Hey, would you people just shut up? You have no way of knowing who will win until we play the match, so just shut you mouths until the match is over, and if you don't I will shut them for you." After that outburst the only thing that her teammates could do was stare at her because this was the first time they had ever heard the usually quite girl raise her voice toward anybody. While her teammates were staring at her, somebody from the opposing team had to provoke her which made go straight over to the girl who said it and was about to punch her in the face until somebody held her back from behind.

"Ayame, what has gotten into you? You can't just go around hitting people just because they say something you don't like." Her friend Molly said as she attempted to drag Ayame back to where the rest of the team.

"If you want to beat her, then do it on the court. If I'm not mistaken, that Mary Thomas, and according to the lineup, she is supposed to be who you are playing against." Her other friend Nicole spoke up also trying to drag her back to their team. When they finally got her back over to the rest of their team their coach was even more upset with her and scolded her yet again.

"You are getting out of control, if there if anymore outbursts like that from you, I will be forced to suspend you, and maybe even kick you off the team. Do you hear what I'm saying to you?"

"Yes coach, I do."

"Good, then I better not see you act like that again." After the coach had finished scolding Ayame, the referee called for both teams to line up at the net to begin the match. When both teams were lined up at the referee started to announce the start of the match.

"The doubles 2 match between St. Anne Academy and Singing Grove Local is about to begin. For St. Anne Academy Smith and Wilson pair and for Singing Grove Local Anderson and Peterson pair. Both pairs get on the court." After the referee said that both pairs stood on the opposite side of the net and shook hands with one another.

"Hey, let's make this a good match." Nicole said

"Ok." Both of their opponents said at the same time. After the short exchange of words both pairs got into position.

"One set match, St. Anne's Smith to serve. After that was said Nicole started the match with a beautiful serve that swerved after the opponent tried to return it, thus giving them the score.

"15-0"

Nicole then took the rest of the game by using the say serve, leaving the other pair bewildered and not knowing how to return that serve.

"Game St. Anne 1-0 change courts."

Then it was the other team's turn to serve. When she served the ball, it was just an average serve. After the ball landed on their side of the court Summer, Nicole's doubles partner easily returned the ball to far left corner scoring them another score. After about 15 minutes, the match was finished with a score of 6-0. After the two girls returned to the rest of their team they got a lot of compliments on how they played a good game. As Nicole made it back to her two good friends, she said to Molly "Molly, you and Hannah have to take the next match as well, keep this momentum going."

"No problem, there is no way we are going to lose to group like them." Molly said as she went over to her bag and took out her racket. She then went over to her partner who looked a little nervous and put a hand on her shoulder and said "Don't be nervous, we can with this one easily. Just believe in yourself and me and we will be fine."

"A-alright." The timid Hannah said as the made their way to the courts.

"The doubles 1 match between St. Anne Academy and Singing Grove Local is about to begin. For St. Anne Academy James and Young pair and for Singing Grove Local Sinclair pair."

After that was said both pairs went to the net and shook hands ready to start the match. Much like the double 2 match, the doubles 1 match ended in about 15 minutes with a score of 6-0. As the two were returning to their team, Molly decided to say something to her partner. "See, I told you we could win it easily." After she said that they were back with their team, who yet again were congratulating their teammates for a good game. Then they all looked over at Ayame who was over grabbing her racket from her bag. When she stood up they all saw a very terrifying look on her face, indicating that she was still pissed about what was said earlier and was ready to give the other girl a beating that she deserved. When she walked past her teammates they said nothing to her for fear that she might do something to them. When Ayame was about to step onto the court she turned to her teammates and said "You guys can count on me to finish this match and guarantee our victory." She then turned and continued her way to the court. When she made it to the net, her opponent was already there waiting for her. They glared at each other, but said nothing while shaking hands and then when to the positions on the court.

"The singles 3 match between St. Anne Academy and Singing Grove Local is about to begin. For St. Anne Academy Hamasaki and for Singing Grove Local Thomas. It's a one set match, St. Anne's Hamasaki to serve." After hearing that Ayame served a ball that was almost invisible to the human eye.

"15-0"

Again, Ayame used the same serve taking the next point as well.

"30-0"

Ayame did two more of those serves giving her the game.

"Game St. Anne 1-0 change courts." After the referee said that Ayame went over to her coach to see what she had to say, but before she got over there, she glared straight at her opponent still not saying anything, but her opponent got her message just by looking at Ayame's menacing glare. When she made it over to her coach, her coach smiled at her before saying what she had to say.

"Ayame, you are off to an excellent start. All I really have to say to you is loosen up a bit, other than that you are looking good. Now get out there and finish the match."

"Alright coach." Was all Ayame said before returning to the court. When she got back on the court she automatically got into position to retrieve any ball that is sent her way. She was watching her opponent get into position to serve the ball, but right before she served the ball she looked right at Ayame about to say something to her.

"I have to say, you have a nice serve, but that is not going to be enough to beat me." After she said that she served the ball, and to Ayame's surprise, the ball was not as simplistic as she thought it would have been, the ball was quite heavy, but she managed to return it anyway. After she returned it , they fell into a short rally before Ayame decided to go up to the net at last second, and scored the point by using a drop shot.

"0-15"

Again the same serve was used, and again they went into a rally, but this time Ayame went up to the net making her opponent think she was going to pull the same stunk that she just pulled, so her opponent came to the net as well, but instead of hitting the drop shot that her opponent thought she was going to hit, she lobbed it over her opponent into the court behind her.

"0-30"

The rest of the match went really quickly because Ayame was able to see through all of her opponents techniques at the beginning of the match. After Ayame scored the final point the referee called the game.

"Game and match goes to St. Anne's Hamasaki 6-0. Since St. Anne Academy has won three consecutive matches, they advance to the next round. Would both teams line up at the net." After that was said both teams lined up and bowed and thanked each other for a good game. After that both teams left the court to go do whatever they wanted, which just so happened to be to go get lunch and prepare for their next match for Ayame and the rest of the team. As they ate their lunch there were a few conversations being held within small groups.

"Hey, Ayame, that was an awesome match. I don't know how you did it, but you ended it quite quickly after the first two games."

"Well, it was easy once I saw through her techniques, she was nothing. After lunch the girls went to where their next match was being held and thus getting ready to obliterate another team.

**Author's Notes: **Well this is the end of Chapter 16 of The Reunited Souls, I hope you liked it. Sorry if it seems like I'm neglecting Fuji at this point, but for now I'm focusing on Ayame's life within those years that she is America. I will focus a little on Fuji later on because you don't really get much information on what went on in his first and second years and Seigaku, but I will do what I can to create a good story, even if it has nothing to do with the anime itself. Anyways, please leave a review if you have the time or desire to do so. I will try to update really soon.


	17. New Plans are Made

**Author's Notes: **Here is Chapter 17 of The Reunited Souls. Before anything is said, don't forget that this is taking place in America at the moment, so the tournaments will go by different names.

Chapter 17:

New Plans are Made

A few months had passed since Ayame and the rest of her team completed the Prefectural Tournament. Within that time they were also able to beat the State Tournament as well. Now the girls are in the middle of preparing for the finals of the Nationals. At this very moment Ayame is walking home from a very intense practice. While walking she was thinking to herself /Geez, I'm hungry, I really hope that mom has dinner done by the time I get home. The weird thing is that never this hungry after practice it must be because practices have been so extreme lately. But we need to get as strong as possible if we want to win in the championship match. Granted we beat them before, but it was a very difficult match, and we barely won. Everybody was depending on me in the end, I'm glad I was able to muster up the strength to pull it off. But I'm sure they have gotten stronger since then too, so we must persevere and keep training, what else can we do./ She was pulled out of her thoughts when her phone started ringing, so she took it out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID to see who it was. After she saw that it was her mom, she answered it.

"Hello mom, what do you need?"

"Is practice over yet?"

"Yes, if it wasn't I would not have answered my phone. Why do you need something?"

"I just need you to get home as soon as possible. There is something I need to talk to you about."

"Ok, well, I'll be home in about five or ten minutes, so I'll talk to you then."

"Ok, talk to you then."

"Bye mom." After saying that Ayame closed her phone and put it back in her pocket. /I wonder what she needs to talk to me about. It must be important because she made it sound urgent that I get home as soon as possible. Well, I'll find out when I get home. / Not long after she stopped thinking to herself she made it home. When she opened the door, she saw her mother sitting on the couch in the living room waiting for her. As soon as her mother noticed her walk in the door she looked up getting ready to say something.

"Ayame, please come sit down."

"I will after I go upstairs and get changed and put my stuff away."

"Ok, but make it quick, oh and be quiet up there because I just got your sister to go to sleep."

"Ok." Ayame said as she trudged her way up the stairs and to her bedroom. When she made it to her bedroom she turned on her light then shut the door. After the door was shut, she put her bag down in I's usual place and got changed into her pajamas that consisted of a light pink spaghetti strap shirt and a pair of light pink pajama pants to go with it. After she was done getting dressed she opened her door and turned off the light before going back downstairs to see what her mother wanted to talk to her about. When she got back downstairs her mother was still in the same seat that she was when Ayame went upstairs.

"Good you are a back downstairs, now please come sit down."

"Ok." Ayame said as she did what she was told. When she was seated she looked at her mother and spoke "So, what is it that you need to talk to me about?"

"Well, do you remember what we spoke the other day when you asked me about why Kiyo and have been fighting so much?"

"Yes, we were obviously talking about why you two were fighting and about possibly leaving him here while we move back to Japan." After she said that last part realization struck her. "Don't tell me that we are going back."

"Yes, we are going back."

"When?"

"Well, I filed for a divorce. We will have to wait until that goes through before we can move. Also, I was going to wait until you finish this school year. It is almost over, so we will be able to leave soon."

"That's great. There won't be a problem with the tennis team with me leave either because I would be going into the high school if I were to stay here."

"That's true, but don't forget that you will be considered a junior high student back in Japan."

"Yeah, I know. But I'm fine with that. The only regret that I will have when I leave is how will friends here take it?"

"Well, you are going to have to tell the sometime. The school year will be over very soon."

"Yeah, I know. I know it will upset them, but they all have my cell phone number and email, so we can still keep in touch."

"That's true, so it should not be too bad. You just won't be able to see each other anymore."

"That's going to be the hard part. But I'm sure things will work out ok. Maybe I'll be able to visit them, or they can visit me."

"True. If you keep the optimism that you have now, things will be so much easier to leave when the time comes to do so. I don't really want a repeat of what happened when we moved here."

"Oh yeah, I remember that. I was depressed and cried myself to sleep every night for at least a month because I missed my friends."

"Exactly."

"Well, it's getting late and I'm kind of tired, so I think I'm going to go to bed for the night. Besides, I have to get to morning practice on time tomorrow."

"Ok honey, I'll see you in the morning, goodnight."

"Goodnight mom." Ayame said as she went back to her room. For the first time in a long time, Ayame was able to sleep happily knowing good things are soon to happen.

**Author's Notes: **Well, that is the end of chapter 17 of The Reunited Souls. Yeah, I know it is a little short, but I wanted to get it updated as soon as possible. If I stick to how I have it planned out there will probably about one or two more chapters before I start going into details about how Fuji's life has been for the five years that Ayame was in Japan, but his section will probably be shorter due to lack of information on his first and second years at Seigaku, so I might just have to add my own stuff that has nothing to do with the manga or anime. Anyways, please leave a review if you want to. I'll update this as soon as I can. It will probably be within the next few days or so. Anyways, farewell until next chapter.


	18. Some Very Disappointing News

**Author's Notes:** Here is chapter 18 of The Reunited Souls. Oh yeah, just a fair warning I put a lot of OCs in this chapter, but most of them will never show up ever again, they are just there as fillers.

Chapter 18:

Some Very Disappointing News

It was now the day before the National Tournaments and Ayame and the others are very excited about the upcoming match. At the moment the girls were at the last practice before the final match in the Nationals. Ayame was currently having a 2 on 1 match with Nicole and Molly to help her hone her skills for her upcoming match, she decided to do this because she knows that she is going to be in for a very rough match, and if she didn't properly prepare herself, then she would surely be beaten. As the practice match progressed Ayame heard one of her training partners trying to speak to her.

"Hey, Ayame, aren't you playing in the singles one match?" Molly asked.

"Yeah, why do you ask? Weren't you listening when the coach announced who will be playing where?"

Yeah, but you still need to be careful. I'm pretty sure that their captain will be playing in that spot, but what gets me is why did she not start playing until the Nationals?"

"You know, that is a very good question." Both Nicole and Ayame responded at the same time. After that exchange of words, the three girls got back to their match. It was Ayame's server and the score was now 5-4 with Ayame leading. Great, all I need is this one game and I win the match. After a bit of time, the score was now 40-30, and Ayame was about to serve the ball to hopefully end the match, but right before she was able to serve, their coach called for everybody to line up. After everybody was lined up the coach began what she was going to say.

"As you all know, the Finals for the National Tournament are tomorrow and because of that we will be ending practice early today. So go home and get rested up because I want everybody in top shape tomorrow. That is all, you are now dismissed." With that said all of the girls gathered their things and left the court and headed for the locker room. When they got into the locker room the girls got changed and were making plans for how to spend the extra time they had since practice ended early.

"Hey, everybody, why don't we go out and get something to eat, and then go something fun like bowling." Summer mentioned.

"That sounds like a great idea. What does everybody else think?" Molly asked. After she asked that she looked around and got a nod out of everybody with the exception of their captain.

"What's wrong Amy, you don't want to come?" This time it was Sara who asked.

"No, I would like to, but there is something that I have to do, so go on without me."

"What is so important that you would skip out on this kind of thing? It's not like you. Is something wrong?" Hannah, the youngest and shyest person on the team asked.

"It's nothing that concerns you guys, so don't worry about it." Amy said while turning away from the others and leaving the locker room. All the other girls went back to what they were doing except Ayame, she followed their captain out of the locker room because she had a bad feeling that something was wrong. When Ayame exited the locker room she saw Amy walking towards the school gate getting ready to leave, so Ayame ran as fast as she could to catch up with her to get her attention. When she was within speaking range, she decided to grab Amy's attention by speaking up.

"Hey, Amy, please wait for a minute." After hearing Ayame's voice, she stopped and turned around to find Ayame running to catch up to her.

"What do you want Ayame?"

"I know there is something wrong. I've known you since we were nine, the rest have only known you since the start of middle school, so I can tell when something is seriously wrong. So can you please tell me?"

"Alright, but please don't tell anybody else. I don't want them worrying about me."

"Ok, I promise I won't tell the others, you can trust me."

"I know I can, that is why I'm telling you now. Although, I think you might already know what it is."

"Well, if it has to do with the condition you had when we were younger, then yes, I know about it."

"Yes, it does. The truth is I've been regressing for quite some time now."

"Wait, you mean to tell me that your cancer has returned?"

"Yes…"

"That's not good. How long has this been going on?"

"Evidently for quite some time, but I just found out after our first match in the State Tournament."

"Does this mean that you won't be able to play in the match tomorrow?"

"Yes, and that is why I'm leaving everything to you. You are the vice captain for a reason."

"Alright, you can count on me."

"That's good, but now let's talk about you."

"What do you mean?"

"Just like you could tell something was bothering me, I can tell something is bothering you."

"Oh, it's nothing really all that horrible, in fact it could be a good thing for me, but…"

"But what? Don't tell me you injured yourself."

"No, it's not that, I'm not hurt at all, I'm physically fine. It's something else."

"What is it? Obviously it's something if it has you down. You are usually one of the happiest people I know."

"Well, if insist that I tell you, I've been copping with some very stressful situations at home, but that's not all. The rest is that my mom, sister, and I are moving back to Japan when this school year ends."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, I'm serious. I'm happy about it, but I'm also sad about it."

"Wait, why are you happy to be going back?"

"I'm happy to be going back because I won't have to worry about all the fighting for one, also there is a promise I made before I came here that I must keep."

"Well, at least you have something to look forward to…"

"Hey, don't be so pessimistic, you never know, maybe they can cure you once and for all. You have to stay positive."

"You're right. I have to stay positive. Even if they can't cure me, I should at live a happy life."

"By the way, did you really have something to do, or were you just trying to avoid us because of this?"

"I do have something I need to do tonight, but I guess it can wait for a bit. I'll hang around with you guys for a bit."

"That's great. I'm sure you will be able to enjoy yourself, also it will take you mind off of things."

"Yeah, it might be helpful in a way. We should stop talking about the subject because the rest of the girls are coming our way."

"You know that you will have to tell them sometime, right?"

"Yeah, but not now."

"I understand, and I'll share my secret later as well, now is not the time to do so." By the time Ayame finished saying that sentence the rest of the group was by their side. When they caught up to the other two girls one of them decided to speak.

"There you are Ayame, we thought you had decided to not go after all. Are you ready to go?"

"Yes, I am ready to go."

"Ummm, if it's ok, I would like to come after all." Amy said

"Sure, we would not have asked earlier if we didn't want you around."

"That's great, now then where are we going to eat anyway?"

"You know that burger place right next to the bowling alley, right?"

"Yeah."

"We are going there because it is close to the bowling alley."

"Sounds good to me. Shall we get going then?"

"Yes we shall." With that said the girls started on their way to the bowling alley for a night of fun."

xxxxx

The girls just finished their meal and were now getting ready to start their bowling fun. But when they got to the bowling alley they were a bit surprised to see a certain group of people there as well. When the girls walked by the other group to go inside, they didn't go unnoticed.

"Well, look who we have here, if it isn't our fellow lady tennis players. What are you guys doing here?"

"What do you think we are here for?" Nicole said.

"Gee, I don't know, to swimming in the luxurious pools inside?"

"Ha ha, very funny, Joe. We happen to be here to bowl." Molly said

"Well, if that's the case, maybe we could make things more interesting."

"How so?" Both Molly and Nicole said simultaneously.

"Well, how about we create teams, one girl and one boy to a team."

"Ok, but how is that supposed to make things interesting dear brother of mine." Amy asked in an all too amused voice.

"Well, you didn't let me finish, but before I was interrupted, we will team up, but how about we put a twist to things?"

"I don't like where this is going, but go on and explain what you are thinking." Amy told her kid brother.

"Well, I was thinking that if anybody gets a gutter ball that they must drink a shot of this." Joe said as he pulled a pitcher with a larger amount of a liquid that was the color of slime out of his bag.

"What is that?" Everybody around him asked.

"Oh, it's something I created in my spare time."

"Is it even edible?"

"Yes, it is, so, is everybody in or are you going to chicken out?"

"I'll do it, what do you guys say?" Ayame said with confidence.

After looking around at each other all the girls came to an agreement and gave a nod indicating that they were in.

"What about you guys?" All the attention was put on the rest of the guys. After looking at each other, they to nodded and so the game was set. So they went inside and got the shoes that they needed and set it up to where they had eight separate lanes to bowl on. When they got to the designated area, Ayame spoke and asked "How are we going to decide on teams?"

"Oh, we will draw straws for them."

"Ok, do you have them with you?"

"Yes I do. Here are the eight straws for the girls, so would each of you take the liberty of taking one." After he said that all of the girls took one. "Now, Amy, would you please remove the straws from my bag so that we can draw ours?"

"Sure thing, Joe." Amy said as she bent down to retrieve the straws from her brother's bag. "Ok, I've got them, now please pick your straws." After she said that, each boy took a straw.

"Ok, it's been decided, the teams are as follows: Ayame and Alex, Amy and Sam, Molly and myself, Nicole and Max, Sara and Mike, Summer and Jason, Hannah and Stewart, and Jane and James."

"Alright, now that that is settled, let's get started." Ayame said. After she said that, everybody went to their lanes and began their bowling fun. So the girls of the groups started things off, so they picked up their bowling balls and went over to the lane and rolled them down the lane. All of them were successful with not getting a gutter with the exception of one, and that was poor little Hannah.

"Hannah, you got a gutter, remember what the rules are, now you have to drink this." Joe said as he showed her the shot of the vile green liquid. Hannah took the glass and drank what was in the glass, but before she could finish it all, she fell to the ground unconscious. After seeing that happen, all the girls freaked out, while the boys were unaffected because they were expecting as much, considering they had fallen victim to his drinks in the past. Now that one was out, everybody did whatever possible not to get any gutters, but were not successful. By the final frame, there were only three people remaining, Ayame, Amy and Joe.

"Hey, Joe, may I ask where you got the crazy idea to create such things?" Ayame asked as she threw her ball down the lane scoring herself a strike.

"I can answer that for you Ayame, he got all of this because he mimics out cousin, who happens to be your and my age that lives in Japan."

"I see, I hope I don't ever have the pleasure of meeting him when I return."

"Wait, you are going back?"

"Yes, I'm going back after this school year ends." Ayame said as she came back from her final throw and knocking down all except one. Her final score was 201.

"Wow Ayame that is a very good score." Amy said as she returned from her final throw, which happened to be the same as Ayame's making her final score 175.

"Well, ladies, I'm going to finish this now and beat both of your scores." Joe said as he grabbed his ball and threw it down the lane for his final throw, and he only knocked down three of his pins. That was enough to make the girls laugh.

"Oh, yes Joe, that is so beating us." Am said as she laughed at her brother, whose final score ended up at 174 despite his horrible last frame.

"I have to admit, that was fun. What are we going to down now? Most of our teammates are out cold." Ayame asked.

"Well, we don't have much we can do, but wait for them to wake up so we can leave." Amy stated.

"Hey, do any of you two want to try my delicious creation?"

"No way!" Amy said as she backed away from her brother.

"Sure, I'll try it. I'm not afraid of a little liquid." Ayame said as she took the glass out of Joe's hand and drank the contents. After she was done she said "You know, this stuff really isn't that bad." After she said that both Joe and Amy looked at her with very shocked expressions on her face.

"Ayame, how in the world are you still standing?" Amy asked when she recovered from her shock.

"I don't know, but I do know if I don't get home soon my mom will start to worry."

"You might be right, but what are we going to do about the rest of them?"

"Well, I can call my mom, and she can bring our van to take some of them, and you guys can take the others."

"That is not a bad idea." So now that that was said both girls pulled out their phones and called their mothers and explained the situation. After about 20 minutes of waiting, both mother pulled up and had the teens load into their vans taking them all home for the night.

**Author's Notes: **Well, that's the end of chapter 18 of The Reunited Souls. I bet you already know who their cousin is just by what I put into the story thus far. Anyways I'm planning on writing the National Tournament finals next chapter, and the chapter after that should consist of Ayame leaving to go back to Japan. Then I will start the short section on Fuji's life during the five years. Anyways, please leave a review. I will update again soon, so please watch out for it.


	19. The National Finals Begin

**Author's Notes: **Sorry about the delay, I kind of lost interest in writing this for a bit considering I spent so much time updating within the week. Well, anyways, here is chapter 19 of The Reunited Souls.

Chapter 19:

The National Finals Begin

It was now the day of the finals and the girls were psyched up about the entire thing. They had been working really hard for this moment. They were currently waiting for the last remaining member to show up, and once she did, they went to turn in their lineup for the final match. As they turned in their lineup, they noticed that the other team got up to do the same thing, so ended up meeting at the registration booth.

"So, you guys actually showed up on time today."

"Well, of course we did. Did you really think we would run away after getting this far?"

"We weren't sure, but we were hoping that you would not."

"Well, let's have a good match, shall we?"

"That we shall."The two girls said with a smile. After saying that, their opponents walked away to the court that their upcoming match was being held on. After watching them leave Ayame and the others followed so that the match could be started on time. Since both teams showed up on the court at the same time, the match was able to start right away.

They were now about to start the singles one match and Ayame was about to grab her racket and go to the court when she heard her teammates call out to her.

"Ayame, you have to win this." Nicole said.

"We are now depending on you, so don't lose here." Molly said.

"Don't let me down. You told me that you would help the team be victorious in my place." Amy said.

"Do your best!" The whole team said collectively.

"Thanks guys, I will try my best." Ayame said as she turned to go to the court. When she made it to the court she heard her opponent say something to her now.

"Well, if it isn't Ayame, I was expecting to play Amy in singles one if it had come to it."

"You know that she can't play now." After she said that the rest of her team looked at their captain with baffled faces, which caused Amy to let out a sigh.

"I'll explain everything to you guys later, but for now let's just watch the match." After she said that her team nodded and returned their attention to the court. After hearing what had been said with her team, Ayame realized what she had just and gave an apologetic to Amy, which Amy returned with a look that said it doesn't matter. With that Ayame turned back to her opponent who decided to continue the conversation.

"Well, since I'm playing you instead, please give me a good match. Even though we are friends I'm not going easy on you."

"Same goes for you Sue." With that both girls got to their positions and the match began. Since Ayame was on the receiving end, she watched very intently as her opponent bounced the ball preparing to serve. As she served the ball Ayame was able to distinguish where it was going to land and was prepared for the return. /It's going to the bottom far corner./ Ayame thought to herself as she went to that spot before the ball even landed and returned it, only to have it sent back at her, thus sending the two girls into a rally right at the start of the match. After about ten minutes, Ayame was able to take the first game, but with some difficulty. They were now starting on the second game, so Ayame got ready to serve the ball. She was currently bouncing the ball before she threw it up into the air and served the ball using one of the speed serves she was known for, and to her surprise, it was returned to her side of the court. It has been almost an hour since the match started and the match was now at 5-5 and Ayame was beginning to feel her fatigue taking affect on her as she was beginning to move slower and her hits were getting weaker, but her opponent did not look much better. It was Ayame's serve again and her speed serves didn't seem to work against her current opponent, so she decided to use a serve that she has never used before because she never had a need to use it. After she threw the ball into the air and hit it into her opponent's court, but the ball landed on the court and spun for a bit before bouncing backwards back to Ayame. Everybody who was watching the match was surprised when they saw that serve gasped in surprise. Ayame was able to successfully hold her serve because her opponent was not able to figure out how to return the serve. After a total of an hour and a half the match ended with a score of 7-5 being Ayame's win. After she scored her last point and winning the match, Ayame fell to her knees and looked at the sky admiring how blue it was. It was then that her team came running up to her being very happy because they are now the National Champions.

After the match they had the closing ceremony where the girls received their rewards for being the champions of the Nationals. After the ceremony, the girls got on the bus and returned to their school so they could go home and get some much deserved rest. While on the way back to school the girls were all socializing animatedly with each other. It was then that Ayame remembered that there was something that needed to be said so she decided that now is a good time to say it.

"Umm, everybody, can I please have your attention. There is something that I need to tell you."

"What is it Ayame?" Molly asked while Amy looked expectantly because she already knows what Ayame is going to say.

"Well, I'm sorry to tell you this, but I'm moving back to Japan after the end of this school year."

"What? That is so soon, school ends in a couple days." Nicole said in a very surprised voice.

"Well, since we are having problems at home we are moving back as soon as possible."

"But if you move away will we ever see you again?" Molly asked in a very mournful voice.

"Yes, I will come back and visit you guys whenever I'm able to. Also you have my cell phone number as well as my email and IM name, so we can still keep in touch."

"You are right, but it won't be the same without you. We will miss you Ayame." Nicole said with a tone that was mixed with a grief and glee.

"I will miss you guys too. Promise me that we will keep in touch."

"Yes, we will keep in touch. Why wouldn't we?" This time it was the shy Summer that answered.

"I thought you would say that. I didn't think that you guys would not keep in contact."

"By the way Ayame, is there a chance that we will be able to see off?" Amy asked her in a tired voice. After she spoke it caught the attention of every girl on the bus.

"Yeah, my plane leaves at noon on Friday, which is the day after class ends. I'd love it if you guys came by."

"Well, then we will. It's the least we could do for such a great friend." Nicole said.

"By the way, Amy, I've noticed that you have been quite tired lately. Is there something wrong?" Molly asked with a concerned voice.

"Well, actually, there is something seriously wrong with me."

"What is wrong?" Everybody asked with a concerned voice, with the exception of Ayame who know what was coming.

"Well, when I was young I was diagnosed with cancer, and I recently found out that I have relapsed."

"What? How long has this been going on?" Nicole asked in a very concerned voice.

"Well, I don't know how long it has been back, but I found out after I collapsed during the State tournament. This is why I have not played in any matches in so long and why I have missed practice and class so often."

"Well, this is horrible. First we find out that Ayame is leaving us, and then we find this out. What else could spoil our good day?" Molly asked.

"Nothing, at least I hope." Ayame said trying to calm her friend down. "Well, we have arrived at the school, so I'll see you guys tomorrow." Ayame said as she got off the bus and started on her way home.

**Author's Notes: **Well, that is the end of chapter 19, I hope you enjoyed it. Anyways, sorry that it is a bit shorter that I would usually do, but it is 4 in the morning and I'm kind of tired, so if there are any errors please tell me and I will fix them. Anyways, next chapter should be the last chapter in Ayame's part in here. I will then attempt Fuji's part, I can't promise that it will turn out too well, but I will try my hardest. Anyway, please leave a review if you have the desire or time to do so. I will try to update as soon as possible.


	20. The Return to Japan

**Author's Notes: **Well, here is chapter 20 of The Reunited Souls as promised.

Chapter 20:

The Return to Japan

The last day of school was drawing to an end for Ayame and the rest of her friends, and they all knew what that meant. It meant that it was the last day that they had together considering Ayame would be returning to Japan the following day. They wanted to spend the day with her doing something fun, but Ayame had to go home directly after school because she still had packing to do. So her friends made alternate plans, and those were to help Ayame and her mother pack considering her sister was too little to help out much. Their offer to help was gladly accepted by Ayame's mother, but she wanted to know why exactly they wanted to help.

"Hey, girls, I'm glad that you want to help us out, but why are you willing to help? I would think that you would want to go do something more amusing considering it is your summer vacation."

"We did want to, but since Ayame has to stay and help you and we want to spend the day with her, we decided that we wanted to help you out until we have to go home."

"Well, I'm thankful to that, but if Ayame really wanted to go out with you girls, I would not have stopped her."

"I know that mom, but we have too much to do and not a lot of time to do it in. So I said that I have to come and help you out, which was not a total lie."

"I know, but I feel kind of bad make you girls work all day. Which reminds me, Amy, are you sure you are okay to do this. I know about your condition."

"Yeah, I should be fine, don't worry about me. If I start to feel tired, I will stop. I know my limits."

"Ok, I'm just checking."

"I know, and I appreciate your concern over me." After that discussion they all got busy with packing and moving things around. By the time they were done, it was already very late and none of the realized it until then. It was too late for the girls to walk home like they were planning on doing, so they came up with the idea of staying the night, that way they wouldn't have to find ways home, and they would have no problems getting to the airport in time for Ayame's flight back to Japan. The next day was going to be a hard one for all of them, but they won't let that mess with them, they were determined to keep in contact with each other and keep their friendships strong. After getting Ayame's mom to agree to letting them stay the night, the girls had to get their parents' consent before it was official. To all of their surprise, all of their parents said it was fine. So all of the girls decided to just sleep in the living room instead of trying to jam into Ayame's room. After they got their sleeping area situated, they decided to stay up a little longer and talk about anything that they felt like talking about, but things got interesting when they hit the subject of boys.

"Hey, speaking of boys, is there anybody that any of you are interested in?" Nicole asked with a very menacing tone. When nobody answered she looked around to find that many of her friends were either covering their faces, looking away, or had turned beat red, with the exception of one. When she saw that she automatically started to harass the other girls, more in particularly, Ayame, the only one who had no response to her question. "Hey, Ayame, since you gave me no response, does that mean that you have not found anybody you like."

"That's right, and even if I did, the relationship would not last too long since I'm leaving tomorrow. What about you? Is there somebody you like?" After she said that Nicole just smiled and gave her a nod. Unlike the rest of the girls, she and Ayame were not shy about this subject.

"Really? Who might that be? Is it anybody we know?" Molly asked after recovering from the question that got asked to the group.

"Well, yes, it is somebody we all know, but if I spill, all of you have to spill too." Nicole said in a very mischievous tone. That tone made the rest of the girls very fearful of pursuing any further, but their curiosity got the best of them, and those they all decided to spill their secrets, but they all swore to not speak of this to anybody else.

"Well, since we all agree with each other, I will tell you just as I promised I would. I actually, believe it or not, like the vice captain of the boy's tennis team, Alex…"

"Seriously? Well, I can see why you would like him. You two have quite a bit in common, and he is cute as well. I think that you two would make a fine couple." Nicole said, and after she said that everybody else in the room nodded. All of the girls had told who their secret crush was as promised, and it was really no surprise to the rest of the girls when they found out that they all of them had a liking for one of the boys in the guys tennis club. But there was one person who still has not shared anything, and the rest of the girls were going to force to speak the truth.

"Hey, Ayame, we all spilled, so we want you to tell us who you like." All of the girls said at once.

"I already told you, I don't like anybody here."

"Yeah, but there must have been a boy you like at one point in time, maybe not in a romantic way, but there must have been somebody you were close to."

"Yeah there was. Back in Japan, I had a friend that I was really close to. It hurt to leave him behind, in fact, I actually promised him that I would not forget him, and that we would meet again."

"Well, that is nice. What was his name?" Sara asked in a curious tone.

"Oh, his name was Syuusuke Fuji. I just hope that I will be able to see him again. I still miss him to this day."

"Well, I hope you will see him again too. Although, I wonder if he still remembers you. I mean it has been almost six years since you moved here." Amy said in a very sincere tone.

"Well, it is getting late, and we have to get up early tomorrow, so we should go to sleep." Ayame said as she laid down and went to sleep. The rest of the girls did the same thing, thus the house fell silent until they got up the next morning.

XXXXX

The next morning came, and all of the girls were now at the airport, and to their surprise, the boys tennis team was there to see her off as well because Amy had told her brother about it and he told the rest of the boys. Although Ayame would not admit it, she was happy to have the boys around because they were her friends too, so she was happy that they came. It was now getting really close to the time when Ayame had to get on the plane to return to Japan, so she was saying her goodbyes to her friends. As she was going around giving her goodbye hugs and saying goodbye to everybody her plane was ready to be boarded, so she grabbed her carryon luggage and headed that way, but before she did, she turned and said one last goodbye.

"Well, guys, this is goodbye, please remember that I will miss you all, and will try to keep in touch as much as possible. If I don't contact you, you can always take the endeavor and contact me, oh and, I do plan on coming back to visit you guys every so often. Well, goodbye." Ayame said as she turned and went to board her plane with her mom and sister, thus starting her journey to return to the life she left behind many years ago, but that does not mean that is abandoning her life in America.

**Author's Notes: **Well, that is the end of chapter 20 of The Reunited Souls. What did you think? I for one think that it came out pretty decently considering the fact that I was not too sure of how this was going to go. Well anyways, that was the last chapter of Ayame's part. I will now start on Fuji's part during their time of separation. I can't promise that it will be any good, but I will give it my best shot. Leave a review if you desire. I will update as soon as I can.


	21. An Encounter of Questions

**Author's Notes: **Well, here chapter 21 of The Reunited Souls. Please remember that I have switched back to Fuji, who happens to be back in Japan, so things have changed in this chapter and the following ones as well.

Chapter 21:

An Encounter of Questions

It had been five years since Ayame had left Japan, and Fuji still had not forgotten about her, in fact, he missed her more than anything else. He spent everyday wishing that she would return from America so he could see her again. He was currently walking through the park that he and Ayame used to spend a lot of time together at. He was walking around just looking at the scenery that he has seen so many times, but can't help but to look at it anyway. Before he knew it, he was at the place he had shown Ayame so many years ago the day before she left for America. When he got there, he did not expect to who he saw there. After recovering from the shock of seeing the two people there, he went up to them and caught their attention.

"Keiko, is that you?" Fuji asked with uncertainty in his voice. After he said that both people turned around to see who had spoken.

"Syuusuke? Why are here?" Keiko asked.

"So it is you. I'm only here because I like coming here. It is a pretty place and I like to relax here. What are you doing here I thought you were in America…"

"Well, I was, but I moved back here almost two years ago with Shinji here."

"Wait a minute, you look familiar, and I recognize your name too."

"Well, that's because you know who I am. Do you not remember who I am?"

"I think I do but I'm not sure…"

"Well, maybe this will help you out then, you and my sister used to be best friends, and you two were basically inseparable."

"Wait, are you trying to tell me that you are Ayame's brother?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying. It doesn't surprise me one bit that you remember her."

"Why wouldn't I? How is she doing? Is she here with you?"

"I'm sorry, but no, she is not here with me, although I wish she were…" The way that Shinji said that automatically caught Fuji's attention.

"What do you mean by that? Did something happen?"

"Well, not to her. But let's I've been hearing things from her that things are bad there. Why don't you come with us and I will explain what I know."

"Ok." Fuji said as he followed Keiko and Shinji back to their house so that he could get more information on what was going on. He was now concerned about what was going on with Ayame. When they got back to their house, Shinji unlocked the door and everybody walked in. After taking off their shoes, Shinji lead Fuji to the living room where he took a seat and motioned for Fuji to join him. Before they started talking about the subject they came to talk about Keiko decided it would be polite to offer tea or something to them.

"Hey, would you two like some tea or something?"

"Yes, dear, that would be great." Shinji said.

"Yes, Keiko, tea sounds good. Thank you." Fuji said before he turned his attention back to Shinji, who was about to start his speech.

"As, I said, I will tell you what I know about the situation. What I know so far is that things have been very rough for her there due to the fact that my mom and Kiyo have been fighting a lot for quite some time now. It is that that is cause things to rough for Ayame. She consistently has to leave the house just to get away from it all. Since they have been fighting so much, it has been up to Ayame to keep things together, since my mother and Kiyo are too busy fighting. But there are some good things going on for her. She is the vice captain for her tennis club. They have made it to the Nationals every year since she joined them in the sixth grade. Although, they didn't win the championship the first two times, but they won by a very narrow margin this go round."

"That great, well the whole tennis part. It seems that she herself is doing pretty well, but the situation at home is bad. I wish I could help her out somehow…"

"I know, I feel the same way, but since we are here, there is not much we can do for her."

"I know… Well, thanks for sharing that information with me. I feel better knowing something about what is going on with her considering I have not heard from or seen her this whole time."

"Oh, Fuji, I forgot to tell you this, she wanted me to tell you this the next time I see you: she misses you, and thinks about you all the time."

"Really? Well, at least I know that she did not forget about me. Well, I've got to go. Oh and thanks for the tea, I'll see you two around." Fuji said as he headed for the door and was putting his shoes back on.

"Hey, Syuusuke, would you like a ride home?" Keiko asked.

"No, I'm ok. Besides I was going to meet some friends anyway. Thanks for the offer though." After he said that, he walked out of their house and down the road to where he was supposed to meet up with the others.

**Author's Notes:** I know this is the shortest chapter that I've ever written, and I'm very sorry about that, but I wanted to update and I thought that this was a good place to stop the chapter. I bet you guys know who he is meeting up with in the next chapter. Well anyways, please leave a review if you want to, otherwise please read the next chapter when I post it, which will be soon hopefully.


	22. A Friendly Outing

**Author's Notes:** Here is chapter 22 of The Reunited Souls.

Chapter 22:

A Friendly Outing

Fuji was at the location where he was supposed to meet up with a few friends, but nobody was there yet. So he decided that it would be best to wait on them instead of leaving thinking that they would not show up, he knew them better than that. After waiting about ten minutes they had all shown up and were ready to go, so they set out to their destination, which was out to the burger place not far from where they were. When they got there and were seated with their orders everybody noticed a changed in Fuji's actions.

"Nya, Fujiko is acting different." asked a certain hyper redheaded boy.

"You're right Eiji. Is something bothering you Fuji?"

"It's nothing really. I'm just thinking about something that was said earlier."

"Did somebody say something that bothered you?"

"Yes, something that was said is bothering me, but it has nothing to do with you two, or myself really."

"But if it has nothing to do with you, why is it bothering you?"

"It bothers me because it has to do with a childhood friend of mine."

"Who is this friend? Do we know him or her?"

"No, Eiji, you don't. Now if you excuse me I've have to go. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Fuji said as he got up from his seat and left leaving his two friends sitting there wondering what exactly happened.

XXXXX

After Fuji left his two friends, he went back home and stayed there for the rest of the night. For the most part he stayed in his room, but he did go out occasionally so his family would not worry about him. But that did not good because his sister could tell that something was bothering her brother and she was determined to figure out what it was that was bothering him, even if it took her all night. So a little while after they finished their dinner, she went upstairs to her brother's room only to find that he was not there, but as she was leaving his room she was that the bathroom door was shut indicating that he was in there, so she decided to wait until he was done in there to talk to him. Thirty minutes had passed and Fuji was back in his room again listening to his IPod while laying on his bed thinking about what Shinji has told him about what has been going on with Ayame. After a few minutes, he heard somebody knocking on his bedroom door.

"You can come in nii chan." After he said that his sister walked into the room shutting the door behind her. She then when to Fuji's desk and sat in the chair and was ready to talk to her brother. After she sat down Fuji sighed, took out his earphones, and said "What do you want?"

"You know what I want Syuusuke."

"I know, but I don't feel like talking about it."

"Well, talking about it can make you feel better, so will you please talk to me?"

"No, so please leave me alone."

"You know that I can't do that until you tell me what is bothering you."

"Well, I don't want to, so leave me alone."

"I will not do that. Please tell me. Maybe I can help you."

"Fine, since I know that you won't leave me alone until I tell you, I'll tell you. Do you remember Ayame?"

"You mean the girl you used to hang around with all the time when you were younger?"

"Yes, her."

"Did something happen to her?"

"Well, no, but things are not good for her though."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I met up with her older brother earlier, and he told me that her parents have been fighting very badly lately and things are only getting worse."

"So, you are concerned about her."

"Yes, I am."

"Well, there is not anything you can do for her except hope that things get better for her."

"Yeah, I know, but I really wish that they would leave him behind and come back here. I want to see her again."

"I'm sure you do and maybe you will someday."

"Maybe you are right, but it's getting late and I'm ready for bed, so could you please leave now."

"Ok, Syuusuke, I'll see you tomorrow morning." Yumiko said as she got p from the chair and walked out of the room. Fuji then drifted to sleep wishing that he could see Ayame again. Little did he know that his wish would soon come true.

**Author's Notes:** Well, that is the end of chapter 22 of The Reunited Souls. I know it is really short, but I have been suffering from a bit of writer's block, so this is all I could come up with. The next chapter should be when they meet each other after so many years. That is if I stick to my plan, but I'm known to stray from plans, so please leave a review. I will have the next chapter up as soon as possible.


	23. Reunited at Last

**Author's Notes: **As promised, here is chapter 23 of The Reunited Souls.

Chapter 23:

Reunited at Last

/Class 3-6/ Ayame thought to herself as she walked down the corridor to find the class that her schedule showed. When she finally found the room class had already started, but she didn't care because she was with the principal when class had started, so the teacher was already aware of her tardiness. So when made it to the classroom she could hear the teacher telling the students in the class to take their seats and to be quiet so he could start the lesson, but when he heard a knock on the door, he stopped lecturing the class and said "Oh class, we have a new student joining us today. Would you come in and introduce yourself?" After he said that a girl with light red, wavy, shoulder length hair and icy blue eyes and her skin slightly tanned walked into the class and stopped in front and bowed slightly before speaking.

"Hello, my name is Hamasaki Ayame and it is a pleasure to meet you all. I'm guessing that you want to know some things about me, so I'll tell you some. Is born here in Japan, but moved to America five years ago when I was eight years old, and yes, before you ask, I'm only thirteen years old. I live at home with my mom and four year old sister. I love sing and play tennis. Well, that is about it for now." Ayame said before bowing again and letting the teacher talk again.

"Ok, thank you for the introduction Hamasaki, now would you go take a seat next to Fuji. Fuji would you please raise your hand." After he said that Fuji raised his hand and Ayame went to her seat. When she got to her seat and sat down, she was greeted by her new seatmate and his friend.

"Hello, Hamasaki san, I'm Fuji Syuusuke and this is my friend Kikumaru Eiji. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too Fuji kun and Kikumaru kun." Ayame said but while she said that she couldn't help but question something. /Why does he seem so familiar? I feel like I know him from somewhere, but I can't seem to remember where I know him from./ But as she thought that, similar thoughts were going through Fuji's head as well. For the rest of the class period the only thing on those two's minds were trying to figure out why they feel like they know one another.

XXXXX

A couple hours had passed and it was now lunch time and Ayame was sitting under a sakura blossom tree enjoying her lunch in silence that was until she heard couple familiar voice coming her way. It was then that she spotted Fuji and Kikumaru. As soon as she noticed them, they noticed her.

"Nya, there you are, we were looking for you. As soon as the bell rang for lunch you bolted out of the classroom and disappeared."

"Why don't you have lunch with us and the rest of our friends?" Fuji offered

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm ok by myself."

"Oh, don't be like that." Kikumaru said as he literally dragged the poor girl along with Fuji and himself much to her displeasure. After they made their way to where Kikumaru and Fuji's friends were sitting at Ayame was already irritated for being disturbed, but hid it because she didn't want to come across as being rude. After Kikumaru finally stopped dragging her she saw that she was under another sakura blossom tree, but she was definitely not alone. Under the tree there were seven guys not including Fuji and Kikumaru. As soon as they stopped under the tree Kikumaru got everybody's attention by speaking.

"Minna, I would like you to meet Ayame, she just joined our class today." After he said that everybody smiled with the exception of a few and introduced themselves. After everybody had introduced themselves, Ayame realized that they were not such a bad group of people, just a little on the crazy and strange side. So she decided to stay and enjoy some conversation until the bell rang and it was time for everybody to return to class.

XXXXX

It was now nearing the end of the day and Ayame was ready to go home, but she still had stuff she had to do after class before she went home. So, as soon as the bell rang, Ayame packed up her stuff and left the classroom, but this time she waited for Fuji And Kikumaru before she left because she asked them to lead her to the tennis courts so that she could turn her application in for the tennis club, and the two agreed to show her the way considering that they had to go there anyway, so she decided to tag along. When they got to the tennis courts, Kikumaru went to the locker room to get changed for practice, while Fuji took Ayame over to The coach.

"Ryuzaki sensei, you have somebody who would like to speak to you." Fuji said before he left and went to the locker room to change.

"Umm, I'm here to give you my application for the girl's tennis club." Ayame said as she gave the paper to the older woman in front of her. When she handed her the paper, Ayame noticed that there was a look in the woman's eyes that said that recognized Ayame from somewhere, and now that Ayame thought about it, she looked familiar. Then it hit her that this was the same school that her brother went to and if that were the case then, this must be the coach that he had had.

"Well, if it isn't you. I thought that you brother said that you were residing in America."

"I was, but my family moved back about a week ago. Today is my first day in the school."

"Well, if you are really interested in playing on the team, then why don't we give you a test to see if you have what it takes to make it on the team."

"A test? What kind of test?"

"Well, I would like to see you in a match to see how you play."

"Ok, I accept the test. When will I be doing it?"

"How about in fifteen minutes?"

"Ok, but I didn't being any rackets or a change of clothes with me."

"That's fine. You can borrow a racket and you can use one of the spare gym outfits."

"Ok." Ayame said as she went to get changed for her match. After Ayame was done in the locker room, she noticed that the coach was gesturing for her to join her at one of the courts. When she made it to the court, she noticed that Ryuzaki was talking to another girl.

"Ayame, this is Sana, and she will be your opponent."

"Ok." Ayame said as she made her way up to the net to greet her opponent. After the two did the formal greeting they got into position to play the match. As the two played their match, they had attracted the attention of the rest of the girl's tennis club as well as the boy's as well. It was when Fuji saw Ayame in the match that he finally remembered why she was so familiar to him and it was because she was his long lost friend.

/Ayame you came back, just like you promised./

**Author's Notes:** Well, that is the end of chapter 23 of The Reunited Souls. Finally Ayame and Fuji meet again, but they have not come to realize just who the other is yet. What will next chapter bring, well you will have to read it and find out. Please leave a review if you desire. I will try to update as soon as possible.


	24. Remembering a True Friend

**Author's Notes: **Here is chapter 24 of The Reunited Souls.

Chapter 24:

Remembering a True Friend

It had been a few days since Ayame had started at Seigaku and the day that she totally annihilated her opponent, thus getting acceptance into the girl's tennis club. It was now time to decide who the regulars will be for the upcoming Prefectural Tournament. Ayame had just finished her second match in the intra school ranking tournament with a score of 6-0. Both of the matches were easy wins for her. She was now going to record her score. When she was done telling her score to the girl at the table she decided to go walk around the tennis courts for awhile because she had no more matches until after lunch. As she was wandering the courts, she didn't realize that she had wandered over into the boys' courts. She only realized that when she heard a familiar voice call out to her.

"Nya, Hamasaki chan, why are you over here in the boys' courts?"

"Oh, Kikumaru kun, it's you. To be truthful, I'm not sure why I'm over here instead of the girls' side."

"Well, since you are aver here, why don't you watch the match that is about to start?"

"Sure, why not. Who is playing anyway?"

Fujiko and Taka san are going to be playing a match."

"If Fuji is playing, I think I might just watch the match." After she said that Ayame went over to the fence to watch the match that was about to start. As she watched the match progress, she saw just how great the boy's club was. But that was not all she saw, she also saw something that made her remember something from her past.

/I've seen that play style from somewhere, but where did I see it, and who did it belong to?/ Ayame thought to herself as she watched the match and tried to remember just who used that play style. It was when Fuji hit a certain ball that Ayame was able to remember exactly who used that play style. /I remember now. How could I have forgotten? It's Fuji who used that play style, but he was the only person I ever saw use it. If that is the case, then is that my old friend Fuji? If it is, then I'm glad that I finally get to see him again after all these years./ Ayame thought to herself while smiling, but that smile did not go unnoticed.

"What are you smiling for?" Kikumaru asked his classmate as he looked over at her.

"It's nothing really. I just remembered something and it made me happy."

"What is it that you remembered?

"It's nothing important, so don't worry about it." Ayame said as she turned her attention back to the match that was drawing to an end. In the end, it was Fuji's win. After Fuji walked out of the court he went to record his score. After he recorded his score it was decided that it was time for lunch break. As Fuji walked away from the table, he walked past Ayame. It was then that Ayame decided to talk to him.

"Hey, Fuji, can I talk to you for a bit?"

"Sure, I don't see why not. Let's find somewhere to sit down and talk." After they found somewhere to sit they started their conversation.

"So, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Well, you see, I feel like I've seen your play style before."

"Oh really? From where?"

"Well, I remember that a friend of mine used that same exact play style, and I have reasons to believe that you are that friend."

"Well, then there is something I should probably tell you."

"Really? What would that be?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'm not going to tell you." Fuji said in a playfully, yet serious tone.

"But I need to know, are you him or not?"

"I don't know, do you think that I'm him or not?"

"I already told you that I think that you are him." Ayame said as she began to get slightly agitated with Fuji.

"Well, then you answered your on question." Fuji said as he started to get up and leave. But before he could get more than two steps away from her, Ayame grabbed his arm and spoke.

"It really is you, isn't it?"

"Yes." Was all Fuji said. After he said that something that he was not expecting to happen happened. Ayame had enveloped him in a hug and was crying into his shirt.

"I'm so glad that I found you. You have no idea how much I've missed you." Ayame managed to say through her tears. As Ayame continued to cry into his shirt, Fuji returned her embrace and spoke to her.

"Actually, I think I do know how much you missed me because I've missed you too." With that being said, both of them stayed there in the hug just enjoying being with each other. As they stood in each other's embrace, they both thought the same thing.

/We have finally been reunited, it is like we are reunited souls./

**THE END**

**Author's Notes:** Well, that is the end of the final chapter of The Reunited Souls. I hope that you guys enjoyed the story. I was thinking about going on with the story, but I thought that this was a good ending point. I'm actually thinking of possibly creating a sequel to this, but I want to know do you guys think that I should create the sequel or just leave it as it is. I'll be putting a poll in my profile sometime soon to see what you think, so please take advantage of it and tell me what you think. Oh and one more thing before I end this, please leave a review if you have the desire. It would be greatly appreciated.


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